
Class E_i— 

Book. -^f^f/ 
Copight'N? . 



COPreiGHT DEPOSIT 




Si^ETCHES 



Ji9 



.HUNKER HILL. BATTLE 



MONUMENT 



WITH ILLUSTRATIVE DOCUMENTS. 



FOURTH E D I T I ?^ . 



CHARLESTOWN: 

C. p. EMMONS, 47 AND 49 MAIN STREET. 
1844, 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS 

UPON THB 

OPENING SCENES 

OF THE 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



The important relation which the Battle of 
Bunker Hill bears to the whole war of the Amer- 
ican Revolution, requires a brief statement of the 
causes that led to that memorable conflict. Pro- 
posals in successive British Parliaments, for the 
taxation of the American colonists, without allow- 
ing them a representation in those Parliaments, first 
opened the issue of strife. That there were those, 
especially in the New England colonies, who had 
for some time previous cherished a lurking spirit 
of opposition to any acts of sovereignty which 
Great Britain might here attempt to exercise, may 
not be denied. The mother country was bur- 
dened with a debt, which, though trifling compared 
with that which now weighs upon her, was then 
felt to be grievous ; and it was not strange, that, 
amid the various projects for meeting its annual 
obligations, the hope of a revenue from America 
\ 



8 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

should suggest itself. The taxing of America 
was first moved in the British Parliament by Mr. 
Grenville, in March, 1764. The result of his 
motion was the Stamp Act, imposing a tax upon 
all notes, bonds, papers, &c., which passed the 
House of Commons by a vote of 250 to 50, and 
the House of Lords, without debate or dissent, 
and received the approval of George HI., March 
22, 1765. 

The object of this delay of a whole year be- 
tween the motion and its passage, was to give the 
colonists an opportunity to suggest some other 
mode of raising the tax, which should be prefera- 
ble to them. A tax of some kind they must sub- 
mit to, and if they did not like to have the impo- 
sition attached to their legal instruments, bills, 
receipts and private contracts, they might propose 
some other method. This show of indulgence 
was represented to the colony agents in London, 
as establishing a precedent by which their con- 
stituents might demand, henceforward, the right 
of being consulted before any tax was imposed 
upon them. But this gilded bait did not tempt. 
The reception of the news of the passage of this- 
act was followed by remonstrances and petitions 
from a Continental Congress assembled at New 
York, and by various demonstrations of popular 
excitement. Handbills printed with funereal dec- 
orations around them, the tolling of muffled bells, 
and the construction and ridicule of the effigies of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 9 

obnoxious officers, testified to the deep indignation 
of the people. The stamp agents were compelled 
to resign, and the act was wholly disregarded. 
The act was repealed the next year by a new 
administration ; Pitt having triumphed in the 
House of Commons by denying the right of the' 
Parliament to impose a tax on the colonies. The 
repeal was, however, accompanied by a declara- 
tory act, maintaining the power and right of the 
kingdom to bind the colonies in all cases what- 
soever. This declaration, being only a threat, 
was, for the time being, harmless, and was winked 
at on this side of the water, as a salvo to British 
pride. 

In 1767, under the Townshend administration, 
several measures, most obnoxious to the colonists, 
were devised in succession, — such as import du- 
ties on paper, glass, paints and teas, a list of civil 
officers to be named by the crown, with salaries 
fixed at the pleasure of the monarch, a requisition 
for providing articles of food and clothing for the 
soldiers, at the expense of the colonies, together 
with the establishment of a custom-house and a 
board of commissioners, on tyrannical principles. 
These measures were all followed by intense ex- 
citements of the people, and led to protective com- 
binaiions. In 1770, Lord North brought about a 
repeal of the new duties, with the exception of 
that upon tea, which was retained, as it was 
alleged, for the purpose of upholding the disputed 



10 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

right of taxation. " The Boston Massacre " of 
the 5th March, as it was most improperly called, 
in which three of the inhabitants were killed and 
five others wounded, in an affray with the soldiers, 
well nigh maddened the populace. In this matter 
the blame was unquestionably on our side. How 
far it is palliated by the honest indignation of the 
people of Boston at the presence of the military in 
their streets, is a question open for individual 
judgment. From that time there was a continued 
succession of insurrections and hostilities. 

At every stage in the offensive proceedings 
against the colonies, there w^ere those among the 
legislators and the people of Great Britain who 
opposed the measures of the government, and pre- 
dicted the disastrous results which at last mingled 
in the issue. Our former governor, Pownall, whose 
judgment and experience should have given au- 
thority to his words, uttered in the House of Com- 
mons a prophecy which the war fulfilled. 

An act of parliament, in 1764, in anticipation 
of extreme measures, had empowered the king to 
station a military force in any province, and to 
quarter it upon the people. This act was not im- 
mediately enforced, but in 1767, some troops of 
the royal artillery arrived in Boston, and Gov- 
ernor Bernard made provision for their support at 
the castle, at the expense of the province, without 
authority thus to vote away money. He dissolved 
the General Court, and refused to call it together 



BATTLE OF BUNKER UlLt. 11 

again. The people of Boston and of the neigh- 
boring towns formed and re-established their com- 
binations against the importation and consumption 
of British goods, of tea, of foreign fruit, and arti- 
cles of mourning apparel, recommending likewise 
great prudence and economy. 

As the people were deprived of their General 
Court, a convention of delegates from more than a 
hundred towns assembled in Boston, in September, 
1768, and sat several days. They requested the 
governor to call together the General Court, but 
he refused. Their measures were judicious and 
calm, but resolute ; they advised the observance 
of a day of fasting and prayer, and that the peo- 
ple should provide themselves with fire-arms. At 
the close of the convention two more regiments 
arrived. They were quartered in Boston, in de- 
fiance of the earnest objections of the people and 
the council. They marched through the town in 
battle-array, and occupied the common, the state- 
house, the court-house, and Faneuil Hall. The 
people looked on in amazement, but they did not 
fear. 

Governor Bernard was re-called to England 
August 1, 1769, and was succeeded by Lieutenant 
Governor Hutchinson, who followed up the mea- 
sures of his predecessor, delaying at his pleasure 
the convoking of the General Court, and then ar- 
bitrarily summoning it to assemble at Cambridge. 
There were now about two thousand British troops 



12 BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 

in Boston. As they had been kept for a time in. 
close quarters, the people had not received from 
them any provocations beyond that of their un- 
welcome presence. But in the winter of 1770 
they had been allowed to walk about the streets 
in little squads, and their language and conduct 
were often insulting. It might have been foreseen 
that outrages like that upon the 5th of March 
would ensue. The resolute remonstrances of the 
people procured the removal of the troops from 
Bo'^ston to the castle. Discontent and bold resis- 
tance gradually ripened the elements of civil strife, 
and it was evident that a great crisis approached. 
The destruction of three cargoes of tea, belonging 
to the East India Company, in Boston harbor, in 
1773, was a plaia evidence of the determination 
of the people to resist the duty which Lord 
North's bill had left to be exacted on that import. 
At the session of the General Court, in May, 1773, 
a committee was appointed to open a correspon- 
dence with the committees of other colonies on 
political subjects, and it was this step which led 
to the convention of a Continental Congress at 
Philadelphia. The people had petitioned the 
King for the immediate removal of Governor 
Hutchinson, who in letters to England had made 
unfair and prejudicial representations of the state 
of things in this colony. He sailed for England 
in June, 1774. His house had been destroyed 
by a mob, and his property and papers scattered 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. IS 

to the winds. He was succeeded by General 
Gage, the Commander in chief of the British 
forces in America. 

If England had not then a Stuart for a monarch, 
she had a Stuart ministry. Infatuation seems to 
be the only appropriate word by which to desig- 
nate their galling accumulation of abuses and 
restrictions upon the colonists, who had already 
given sufficient evidence of their indomitable reso- 
lution to resist. Next came the appointment of the 
Governor's Counsellors by the King, instead of by 
the Court, as heretofore, and finally the climax of 
ministerial delusion, in which, upon June 1, 1774, 
a parliamentary bill declared that Boston Port 
should be closed against all commerce and navi- 
gation, and be in a state of blockade. The pas- 
sage of this bill was procured under the expecta- 
tion that the other ports of this and the other col- 
onies would delight in the humiliation of Boston, 
and selfishly seize the opportunity thus put into 
their power of drawing commerce to themselves. 
Here again did the ministry delude itself by 
another gross miscalculation. The effect of the 
bill was wholly opposite to their expectations. 
Numberless copies of it were quickly multiplied 
and circulated over the continent, having, as Burke 
said, the inflammatory effect which the poets ascribe 
to the fury's torch. Copies of the bill, printed on 
mourning paper, with a black border, were hawked 
in the streets of New York and Boston, under th$ 
2 



14 BATTLE OF BtTNKER HILL. 

title of " a barbarous, cruel, bloody and inhuman 
murder." In other places, the populace being 
called together by placards, burnt the bill with 
great solemnity. The General Court of Massa- 
chusetts recommended to the other colonies to 
suspend all commercial intercourse with Great 
Britain, and formed a solemn league and covenant 
against the use of English goods, though General 
Gage threatened all the subscribers of it with 
transportation to England foT treason. 

Within four months after the receipt of the 
Boston Port bill, the deputies of twelve provinces, 
representing three millions of people, were con- 
vened at Philadelphia. Loyal and constitutional 
sentiments there found an honorable reception, 
and conciliatory measures on the part of Britain 
would even then have been of avail. Yet it was 
easy to see that allegiance to the throne was a 
word which was fast becoming of an empty sound 
throughout the continent. The sufferings to 
which the people of Boston were subjected were 
relieved by generous contributions throughout the 
country. General Gage removed the Court from 
Boston to Salem, where it met by adjournment 
on June 7th ; but on the 17th he sent his messen- 
ger to announce its dissolution. The messenger 
was shut out of doors, while the Court, before 
obeying the summons, chose their first delegates 
to the General Congress, Cushing, Samuel and 
John Adams, Paine and Bowdoin. About this 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 15 

time independent military companies were formed 
in Boston. General Gage began to assume de- 
spotic power, as the successive encroachments upon 
the chartered liberties of the people brought on the 
unavoidable isspe. He ordered military stores 
from New York ; he collected powder from the 
neighboring towns ; sent out agents to survey the 
country, and erected strong fortifications on Boston 
neck. This last measure, which amounted to a 
shutting out of all intercourse between the people 
in Boston and the environs, by land as well as by 
sea, was regarded as an outrage which ought not 
to be endured. But he alleged that the object of 
the fortifications was to prevent the frequent de- 
sertions of his soldiers. 

Delegates from the different toAvns met at Salem 
in October, and there constituted the Provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts. A committee of this 
body was directed to ascertain the character and 
amount of the military stores in the province, and 
to encourage military discipline. The taxes were 
turned from the authorised provincial treasurer to 
a new officer then appointed; a Committee of 
Safety, with executive authority, was chosen to 
act after the adjournment, and three general offi- 
cers. Colonels Ward, Thomas and Pomeroy, were 
invested with the command of the provincial mili- 
tary. Before that Congress met again, another 
warning voice was lifted in solemn tones to coun- 
sel the mother country. On the 20th of January, 



16 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 

1775, Lord Chatham, after long retirement and 
sovere bodily suffering, rose in the House of Lords. 
He foretold the event of these ruinous measures ; 
he implored the nation to pause and consider, and 
then proposed that a humble request be made to 
the King to require General Gage to evacuate 
Boston. But the voice of warning was not heeded. 
The Provincial Congress met again by adjourn- 
ment in February, 1775, organized their commit- 
tees, arranged their correspondence, and provided 
military preparations and stores, designating Wor- 
cester and Concord as places of deposit. General 
Gage was vireli informed of all these proceedings, 
and hearing of some stores at Salem or Danvers, 
he sent one hundred and fifty men to seize them. 
But the attempt was rendered fruitless by resist- 
ance on the way. 

There was a third session of the Congress in 
March, \vhen vigorous measures were adopted. 
Large companies were organized, composed of 
men who held themselves ready for service at a 
minute's warning. More British troops arrived, 
and General Gage was equally determined to pur- 
sue his blind and misguided measures. Nor were 
legislative enactments the only grievances of which 
the people complained ; insults and indignities of 
various kinds were offered them by officers and 
soldiers, which annoyed and vexed the citizens. 
The 16th of March had been consecrated as a day 
of fasting and prayer by the Provincial Congress. 



BATTLE OF BUNKEE HILL. 17 

While the society were assembling in the church 
at West Boston, the regulars pitched two marquee 
tents within ten yards of the house, and continued 
with fifes and drums to disturb the service. At 
the commemoration of the 5th of March massacre, 
in the Old South Church, the patriot Samuel 
Adams courteously placed about forty British 
officers, who came to hear Warren's Oration, in 
the best seats, and they listened in quietness. At 
its close, Adams moved that an orator be chosen 
for the ensuing 5th March, to commemorate " the 
bloody and horrid massacre, perpetrated by a party 
of soldiers under the command of Captain T. 
Preston." His motion was received with hisses 
and cries from the officers, when great confusion 
ensued. 

On the 8th of the month, a countryman (Thomas 
Ditson) from Billerica, while buying a musket in 
Boston, was seized by the regulars and covered 
with tar and feathers. He was carried through 
the streets on a truck, guarded by twenty soldiers 
with fixed bayonets, a label being attached to his 
back, inscribed " American Liberty, or a Specimen 
of Democracy," while a promiscuous crowd of 
officers, negroes and sailors followed, and the 
drums and fifes played " Yankee Doodle," a tune 
used by the British in ridicule of the provincials. 
The selectmen of Billerica sent a remonstrance to 
General Gage, and told him if it did not answer 
the purpose, they should " hereafter use a different 
2# 



iS BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 

Style from that of petition and complaint." Colo- 
nel Hancock's house was twice assaulted during 
the month, when the fence and the windows were 
destroyed by the soldiers. On the night of the 
18th the Providence coach was attacked, as it 
entered the town, and its passengers were abused, 
but the driver, leaping from his seat, inflicted a 
severe castigation upon the British Captain Gore. 
These are but specimens of the many riots, out- 
rages and indignities, which maddened the people 
of the town and of the province. 

Such were the ministerial enactments, the pub- 
lic grievances and the military outrages, which 
were preparing the way for a civil war. It was 
evident that only an occasion was necessary to 
confront the foreign invaders, and the citizens of 
the soil, in two opposing armies. That occasion 
presented itself on the 19th of April, when Gen- 
eral Gage, without provocation, warrant or justifi- 
cation, sent a body of troops to Concord to seize 
upon the military stores there deposited. Those 
troops on their way, going beyond their orders, 
wrong as they were, made an attack upon a few 
militia-men at Lexington, and then ensued the 
fight at Concord. It was a most inglorious ex- 
ploit for his majesty's regulars, for as the country 
people had good warning of their purpose, it was 
but poorly accomplished, and they were forced to 
retreat, marking their homeward way by a line 
of killed and wounded, shot from the shelter of 



BAtTlE OP BUNKER HILL. 19 

riouses, woods, walls and fences, by the incensed 
country people. That dastardly enterprise was 
not even sanctioned by ministerial authority, when 
the news reached England, though an attempt 
was made to charge upon the provincials the sin 
of striking the first offensive blow. The Congress 
of the colony instituted inquiries and procured 
certified affidavits, which proved that both at Lex- 
ington and at Concord the first fire was discharged 
by the British. That aggression upon the liber- 
ties of the people was equally unauthorized and 
exasperating. On the 22d of the month the Pro- 
vincial Congress again assembled, voted to raise 
at once thirteen thousand men, to rally at Cam- 
bridge and the neighborhood, and asked aid from 
the other provinces, to which Connecticut, Rhode 
Island and New Hampshire responded. The forts, 
magazines and arsenals were secured for the 
country. Then, for the first time, the title of 
enemies was given to the British, and General 
Gage was denounced as the agent of tyranny and 
oppression. An account of the battle at Lexing- 
ton was sent to England, and an address, closing 
thus : " Appealing to heaven for the justice of our 
cause, we determine to die or be free." 

By advice received from Lord Dartmouth, the 
head of the war department. General Gage issued 
a proclamation on the 12th of June, in which he 
declared the discontents to be in a state of rebellion, 
offered full pardon to all, with the exception of 



;sJO" battle of BUNKER HILL. 

Hancock and Adams, Avho would lay down theii 
arms and bow to his authority, and announced 
that martial law was now in force. 

This proclamation, issued on the first day of 
the week, was to be illustrated by a fearful com- 
mentary before another Sabbath came. For we 
have thus entered upon that week in our history 
when was fought the battle which has made that 
green summit the first altar of our country's free- 
dom. 

Of the fifteen thousand troops then gathered, by 
the cry of war, at Cambridge and Roxbury, under 
the command of General Ward, about ten thou- 
sand belonged to Massachusetts, and the remainder 
to New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut. They constituted an iiTegular and undisci- 
plined army, without accoutrements, or any other 
uniform than their working suits. Recruits and 
stragglers were continually coming in. Yet many 
of those provincial soldiers, though undisciplined 
by any thing like regular service, were by no 
means unused to the severities and obligations of 
a military life, having had experience in the Indian 
and French wars. One regiment of artillery, 
with nine field-pieces, had been raised in Massa- 
chusetts, and put under command of the famous 
engineer, Colonel 'Gridley, but it was not yet 
thoroughly organized. A self-constituted Provin- 
cial Congress discharged the legislative functions, 
and a Committee of Safety, electedby the Congress, 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 21 

filled the executive place of governor and council, 
and confined their functions chiefly to military 
directions. 

There were in fact four independent armies 
then united in resistance to the foreign enemy. 
The forces then gathered in the neighborhood did 
not constitute a national army, for there was then 
no nation to own them ; they were not under the 
authority of the Continental Congress, for the au- 
thority of that Congress was not as yet acknowl- 
edged ; nor had that Congress as yet recognised 
those forces. Neither were the troops from Con- 
necticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, sub- 
ject to the command of General Ward, save as 
the friendly purpose which led them to volunteer 
their arms in defence of a sister colony, would be 
accompanied by the courtesy that would make 
them subordinate allies. These independent 
armies could act in concert only by yielding them- 
selves to the influence of the common spirit which 
called them together. General Ward was a judi- 
cious and conscientious patriot, had served the 
colony in high civil and judicial stations, and in 
the French war, in which he was a Lieutenant 
Colonel, had earned some military experience and 
fame. Lieutenant General Thomas, who accepted 
his commission on May 27, was distinguished for 
talents, patriotism and military reputation; he 
was second in command. General Pomeroy, like- 
wise famous in the border war, continued to serve 



22 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

under the appointment of the Provincial Congress. 
General Putnam preceded his Connecticut troops, 
in hurrying to the scene of war, on the news of the 
battle of Lexington. His men soon followed him 
with like enthusiasm. The New Hampshire 
troops, on their arrival at Medford, made choice 
of Colonel Stark as their leader. General Green 
commanded a regiment from Rhode Island. 

The semicircle of headlands, slopes, points and 
eminences, united by green levels and extending 
over ten or twelve miles, which we may now see 
from these summits, in all the beauty of its sum- 
mer garb, was then covered by the wide-spread 
wings of our citizen army. A part of Colonel Ger- 
rish's regiment from Essex and Middlesex, and a 
detachment of New Hampshire troops, stationed 
on the hills of Chelsea, formed the tip of its left 
wing, and all along the eastern sea-board to Cape 
Ann and Portsmouth, were watchful spies on the 
alert to spread the alarm, if the British should at- 
tempt an entrance at any of the ports. Colonels 
Reed and Stark, next in the line, were stationed 
at Medford with their New Hampshire regiments. 
Lechmere's Point, at East Cambridge, was guard- 
ed against a hostile landing, to which it offered 
great facilities, by parts of Colonel Little's and 
other regiments. General Ward, with the main 
body of about 9,000 troops, and four companies of 
artillery, occupied Cambridge ; while all the points 
of high land, the farms, and the main roads, were 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 23 

cautiously defended. Lieutenant General Thomas, 
with 5,000 troops from Massachusetts, Connecticut 
and Rhode Island, with three or four companies of 
artillery, constituted the right wing of the army at 
Roxbury and Dorchester. 

Here was a wide extent of space, approachable 
by land only at Roxbury neck, where the British 
lines were strongly entrenched, assailable at seve- 
ral points by armed ships and floating batteries, 
but protected to a great degree by shoal and tide 
waters, swamps, and intersecting creeks. The 
army was wholly voluntary in its organization, the 
soldiers having enlisted for different periods, de- 
pending for their daily food upon the provisions 
sent from their several towns. Subordination and 
obedience to their officers were secured and yield- 
ed by their respect for those whose names were 
familiar to them, as associated with magnanimity, 
enterprise and bravery. 

Such was the constitution and the disposition of 
the American army when the provincials found 
themselves in the singular position of besieging 
their own chief town of Boston. That little penin- 
sula was thus completely invested and hemmed in. 
Several of its inhabitants remained there from dif- 
ferent motives ; some as devoted loyalists, some as 
timid neutrals, some as spies, to watch each hos- 
tile movement and to communicate it to the colo- 
nists. Some of these last, together with many 
deserters, would occasionally cross the water by 



d4 BATtLE OF BUNKER HILL* 

swimming, or in boats, or pass the Roxbury lines 
and enter the American camp by night. Others 
there were whose anxiety for their property induc- 
ed them to continue in Boston. After hostilities 
had comm.enced, General Gage of course consider- 
ed the citizens as prisoners. By the spies and 
deserters our officers generally received full infor- 
mation of all that occurred in Boston during the 
whole time of its investment by the British. That 
word British had now become synonymous with 
enemy, and though the regular army encamped in 
the capital might despise the undisciplined multi- 
tude which kept it in such close quarters, it was 
compelled to regard its opponents as powerful and 
formidable. 

At the time of the battle at Lexington, there 
were about 4,000 British troops in Boston. The 
number was increased to more than 10,000 before 
the action in this town. The best disciplined and 
most experienced troops in the kingdom, many of 
them freshly laurelled in the recent wars on the 
European continent, under the command of officers 
equally distinguished, composed the invading 
army. Gage, the Governor and Commander in 
Chief, had long resided in America, and had mar- 
ried here. He came originally as a lieutenant 
under Braddock, and was with that general when 
he received his mortal wound. He had been 
Governor of Montreal, had succeeded General 
Amherst in command of the British forces on this 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 25 

continent, and Hutchinson as Governor of Massa- 
chusetts. He had constantly and vigorously favor- 
ed the oppressive measures of the ministry which 
brought on the war. He had strongly fortified 
Boston by a double line of intrenchments crossing 
the neck, and by batteries there, and also upon the 
Common, commanding Roxbury and Cambridge, 
upon Copp's Hill, commanding Charlestown, upon 
Fort Hill and the northern extremity of the town, 
commanding the harbor, and upon West Boston 
Point. There were, besides, at least twenty-five 
armed vessels in the harbor. To the inhabitants 
remaining in Boston, the population of which, in- 
dependent of the military, was then about 20,000, 
the troops behaved in an insulting and tyrannical 
manner. 

Thus confronted, both armies seemed alike con- 
fident of success, and anxious for a trial. The 
British were naturally mortified at their condition 
as besieged. They looked with anxiety to the 
heights of Charlestown and Dorchester, and were 
forming measures to occupy them, having decided 
to put them in force on the 18th of June. They 
regarded their opponents as rude, untaught, and 
cowardly farmers, and were nettled at being kept 
at bay by an army clothed in calico frocks and 
carrying fowling-pieces. 

The provincials did not feel their lack of disci- 
pline as they should have done. They were rest- 
less under restraint, they were used to skirmishes, 
3 



26 BATTLE OF BUNKER HltL. 

and thought such would be the contest before them* 
Yet in the Council of War, and in the Committee 
of Safety, there was a difference of opinion as to 
the measures to be pursued. If the heights of 
Charlestown were once occupied by the provin- 
cials, they must be retained against a constant fire, 
which could not be answered, as there were but 
eleven barrels of powder in the camp, and these 
contained one-sixth of all that was in the province. 
General Ward, and Joseph Warren, who was 
Chairman of the Committee of Safety, and had 
been elected Major General on the 14th of June, 
were at first doubtful as to the expediency of in- 
trenching on Bunker's Hill. General Putnam was 
earnest in advocating the measure, saying, " the 
Americans are not at all afraid of their heads, 
though very much afraid of their legs ; if you cover 
these they will fight forever." Pomeroy coincided 
with Putnam ; he was willing to attack the enemy 
with five cartridges to a man, for he had been ac- 
customed in hunting, with three charges of powder, 
to bring home two or three deer. Daring enter- 
prise prevailed in the Council, and it was resolved 
that the heights of Charlestown, which had been 
reconnoitred the month before by Colonels Gridley 
and Henshaw, and Mr. Devens, should be fortified. 
On the fifteenth of June, the Committee of Safety, 
by a secret vote, which was not recorded till the 
19th, advised the taking possession of Bunker's 
Hill, and of Dorchester heights. On the next day 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 27 

the Provincial Congress, as a counterblast to 
General Gage's proclamation, by which Hancock 
and Adams had been excepted from the proffer of 
a general amnesty, issued a like instrument, in 
which General Gage and Admiral Graves were the 
scape-goats. 

It was amid the full splendor, luxuriance, and 
heat of our summer, when rich crops were waving 
upon all the hills and valleys around us, that the 
Council of War decided to carry into execution the 
vote of the Committee of Safety. We may omit 
the question as to tiie prudence or discretion of the 
measure, as being equally difficult of decision and 
unimportant, save as the misgivings of those who 
predicted that the deficiency of ammunition would 
endanger a failure, were proved by the result to 
be well grounded. 



THE BATTLE. 



On Friday, June 16th, 1775, the very day upon 
which Washington was officially informed, in the 
Congress at Philadelphia, of his appointment to 
the command of the Continental army about to be 
enlisted, General Ward issued orders to Colonels 
Prescott and Bridge, and to the commandant of 
Colonel Frye's regiment, to have their men ready 
and prepared for immediate service. They were 
all yeomen from Middlesex and Essex counties, 
and were habituated to the hard labors of a farm 
beneath a summer's sun. Captain Gridley's new 
company of artillery, and one hundred and twenty 
men from the Connecticut regiment under the 
command of Captain Knowlton, were included in 
the order. Colonel Gridley accompanied as chief 
engineer. Three companies of Bridge's regiment 
did not go, but as small parties of other regiments 
fell into the detachment, it consisted of from one 
thousand to one thousand two hundred men. 
They took with them provisions for only one meal. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 29 

Colonel Prescott was ordered to take possession 
of, to fortify, and to defend, Bunker's Hill, but to 
keep the purpose of the expedition secret; , nor was 
it known to the men, until, on arriving at Charles- 
town neck, they found the wagons laden with in- 
trenching tools. The detachment was drawn up 
upon Cambridge Common, in front of General 
Ward's head quarters, after sunset, when prayers 
were offered by Reverend Dr. Langdon, President 
of the College. About nine o'clock the expedition 
was in motion, Prescott with two sergeants carry- 
ing dark lanterns, leading the way. The Colonel, 
expecting warm service, carried with him a linen 
coat or bannian, which he wore during the engage- 
ment. Thus it was that in the accounts of the 
battle given by some of the British soldiers, the 
American commander was described as " a farmer 
dressed in his frock." 

A brief sketch of the natural features and posi- 
tion of the scene may aid the imagination of the 
reader. The peninsula of Charlestown is in 
shape not unlike a pear, as an early settler upon 
it described it: the stem uniting it to the main- 
land, the end extending towards the harbor. Two 
small hills, the Burial Hill and the Town Hill, 
and two larger summits, Breed's Hill and Bun- 
ker's Hill, swell out from its surface. The south- 
eastern slope of Breed's Hill divides the waters 
of the bay into two broad rivers, which indent 
the shores, and just beyond the western base of 
3# 



30 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, 

Bunker's Hill approach so near each other as to 
allow scarcely four hundred feet of breadth to the 
neck of land which unites the peninsula to the 
neighboring country. The Mystic, on the north, 
washes with its double channel the farther shore. 
On the south, the opposite side of the mouth of the 
Charles, which, in its narrowest span, is about 
three hundred yards across, we see the now 
crowded peninsula of Boston, similarly environed 
by the waters of the sea, and united to the main- 
land at Roxbury by a narrow neck. The com- 
munication between Boston and Charlestown was 
then maintained by a ferry. A sloping eminence 
in Boston, at the point where it approaches nearest 
to Charlestown, is called Copp's Hill, and was 
used as a burial-place. Thickly studded with 
graves then, as now, there was planted the battery 
whence came the missiles for the burning of 
Charlestown. Breed's Hill is thus the part of 
the peninsula which approaches nearest to Boston, 
being less than a mile north of Copp's Hill. 
Bunker's Hill lies a few rods north of a line 
drawn westward from Breed's Hill. The relative 
features of the two summits, the highest points of 
which are one hundred and thirty rods apart, have 
not been as yet essentially changed. Bunker's 
Hill, the superior elevation of which has taken the 
fame from the summit where the real action was 
fought — rises to the height of one hundred and 
twelve feet. Breed's Hill, which bears the monu- 



BATTLE OF fi-ONKER HILL. 31 

ment, though it has been robbed of its fame, rises 
to the height of about sixty-two feet. North and 
eastward of the two summits the land slopes, with 
occasional irregularities, down to the Mystic shore. 
A point of land bearing east from Breed's Hill, 
and extending towards the bay, is called Morton's 
Point, and was at the time of the battle crowned 
with an elevation, called Morton's Hill. This 
little summit, which was about thirty-five feet in 
height, and was the place where the first detach- 
ment of the enemy landed and formed for the at- 
tack, has been nearly removed. Between Breed's 
Hill and Morton's Hill, much of the ground was 
sloughy, and occupied by several brick-kilns. 
Breed's Hill was then chiefly used by house- 
holders in Charlestown for pasturage, and was 
intersected by some fences. Towards Morton's 
Point some patches of ground were, on the day of 
the battle, covered with tall waving grass, ripe 
for the scythe, while farther back, on the margin 
of the Mystic, at the base of the two principal 
summits, were fine crops of hay, just mown. The 
fences, and tall unmown grass, which were of 
great advantage to the Americans in their station- 
ary defences, were grievous impediments and 
annoyances to the British in their advances. The 
edifices of the town were gathered around the 
present square, and extended along the main 
street to the neck. Two roads united at the neck, 
the one leading over Winter Hill to Medford, the 



^ BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

Other to Cambridge, the latter being low and 
marshy, and exposed to missiles from Boston, and 
from shipping in the river. 

The order which Prescott received designated 
Bunker's Hill as the position to be taken, and in 
the account of the battle afterwards prepared by 
the Massachusetts Congress it is said that Brfeed's 
Hill was fortified by mistake. Here undoubtedly 
we must begin to make allowances for that confu- 
.sion which marked the proceedings of that event- 
ful day, and which originated in the necessary 
haste with which all the measures were concerted 
and executed. The forcible occupation of the 
heights of Charlestown was designed on a sudden 
emergency, for the purpose of forestalling a con- 
certed plan of the enemy then confined in Boston. 
It would be in vain for us, therefore, to undertake 
to reason upon the supposition of any more defi- 
nite object than this, of taking the start of the 
enemy. With the scanty ammunition and artil- 
lery of the Americans, and the few measured 
hours of operation in which they might expect to 
work undiscovered, a fortification of Bunker's 
Hill, so far from Boston, would scarcely have 
effected their purpose, as it would not have pre- 
vented the landing of the British from boats, and 
the occupation by them of Breed's Hill, if this 
latter summit had been left wholly undefended. 
For all purposes of restraining and annoying the 
enemy in Boston, Breed's Hill offered superior 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 33 

advantages. The Americans have never referred 
to their works in this town as a specimen of the 
manner in which they laid their plans. Dorches- 
ter Heights upon the other side, at the sight of 
which, when day broke, the enemy thought it wise 
to take to their ships, would he rather selected by 
us for such a specimen. 

The detachment from Cambridge, on the night 
of the 16th of June, when it had reached this side 
of the neck was for a time undecided as to the 
position to be taken. The moments, however, 
were too precious for deliberation, though many 
were spent upon it. It was only after repeated 
and urgent warnings from the engineer that longer 
delay would nullify all thcii- labors, that the works 
were commenced upon Breed's Hill, when the 
clocks had announced the midnight hour. The 
highest part of the summit was selected, and 
thither the simple intrenching tools, gathered on 
the spur of the moment, were speedily carried. 

The intrenchments consisted of a redoubt and a 
breastwork, formed entirely of the earth heaped 
by the spade. The redoubt, of which the monu- 
ment now occupies the centre, was eight rods 
square ; the southern side, running parallel with 
the main street, was constructed with one pro- 
jecting and two entering angles. On a line with 
the eastern side, which faced the present navy- 
yard, was the breastwork, extending from the re- 
doubt nearly four hundred feet upon the brow and 



34 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

down the slope of the hill towards the Mystic; 
the sally port opened upon the interval between 
the redoubt and the breastwork. This interval, 
that is, the space between the beginning of the 
breastwork and the corner of the redoubt, was 
defended by a blind, but the sally port, the outlet 
on the northern face of the redoubt, was not pro- 
tected, either within or outside. Probably the 
intention was to have extended the breastwork 
down the whole length of the hill, had time per- 
mitted ; but, instead of wondering at the incom- 
pleteness of the works, we are rather impressed 
with amazement at the results which were brought 
about in four hours of toil. Colonel Gridley 
planned the works, which exliibited an equal 
measure of military science and of Yankee inge- 
nuity. No vestige of the redoubt now remains, it 
having been entirely obliterated in the process of 
laying the founda-tion of the monument. A small 
portion of the breastwork is distinctly visible, as 
causing a slight protuberance in the soil which 
has never been ploughed. The intrenchments 
which we now see lying a few rods west of the 
monument, are remains of the fortifications made 
by the British army, which was in possession of 
the ground for nine months after the battle. 
Their fortifications upon both summits, which 
occupied several weeks in their construction, have 
often been carelessly taken by superficial observers 
for the American works raised in four hours of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 35 

darkness. Coming generations will regret, as 
many of the present generation do, that the battle- 
ground has been so disfigured and marred by the 
sale of all but a small portion of the hill, for house 
lots. Still, the natural features of the peninsula 
are such that they can never be obliterated to an 
extent which will deny to a visiter some conception 
of the fearful scene which has made the ground 
famous. The erection of the Belgic mound on 
the field of Waterloo, causing the removal of a 
ridge of earth, has done as much injury there, as 
the sale of house lots here. 

Though the hands which spaded the bulwarks 
of earth upon Breed's Hill on the night of Friday, 
June 16th, were used to daily toil, and brought to 
their unwonted midnight task the most unflinch- 
ing courage and determination, it was still a work 
of dreadful anxiety. Besides the battery on 
Copp's Hill, there was another in close proximity 
to Charlestown and to the road from Cambridge, 
erected on Barton's Point, at the foot of Leverett 
street, in Boston. It was a bright star-light night 
of midsummer, when the long hours of day 
almost deny an interval to the darkness, and we 
expect each moment after twilight in the west to 
behold the grey of morning in the east. Probably 
had the distance to Boston across the water been 
one rod less, the midnight laborers would have 
been discovered. Cooper, in his admirable tale 
of Lionel Lincoln, which is remarkably faithful 



36 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

to history in most of its details, has represented 
the sounds of the work as audible, at least as 
occasional and smothered tokens of some secret 
enterprise, to the guard on Copp's Hill. It may- 
have been so, but no proof of it appears. A guard 
was stationed on the Charlestown shore nearest 
to Boston, to anticipate any movement of the 
enemy. Prescott himself went there in company 
with our late Governor Brooks, then a major in 
Bridge's regiment, and heard from the enemy's 
sentries, when relieving guard, the cry, " All 's 
well." He returned to his works upon the hill, 
and after another interval, thinking it impossible 
that the enemy could be so dull of hearing, he 
went down to the shore again, and finding all 
secure, he recalled the guard, as their hands 
w^ere needed even more than their ears. The 
moments may have passed rapidly, yet they 
must have left space for thought ; and then those 
earnest patriots, knowing full well to what a ser- 
vice the light of day would introduce them, 
could not but call before their minds, their homes, 
their wives and children, and striking the balance 
between their private joys and their public rights, 
resolve that they must fight. The resolve must 
have been deeply formed, for it was cherished 
and acted upon through a day of horrors which 
they could not have anticipated. The midnight 
work went on, and those burdened moments 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 87 

secured the results of long years of liberty and 
j)rosperity to a nation. 

There was a scene for the imagination to pic- 
ture. Even the narrow space occupied by the 
river's bed was wider than the distance between 
those midnight laborers and their enemies. Five 
armed vessels then floated in the stream, and the 
Boston shore was guarded by a belt of sentinels. 
The Glasgow frigate, with twenty guns and one 
hundred and thirty men, lay on the line of the 
present Cragie's Point Bridge, and commanded 
the neck of land by which the peninsula^ of 
Gharlestown is united to Cambridge ; the Somer- 
set, with sixty-eight guns, and five hundred and 
twenty men, lying near the draw of the pres- 
ent Gharlestown Bridge, commanded Gharlestown 
Square and its dwelling-houses ; the Lively, 
with twenty guns, and one hundred and thirty 
men, lying off the present navy-yard, could 
throw its shot directly upon the redoubt ; the 
Falcon, sloop of war, lying off Morton's Point, 
defended the ascent between the landing places 
of the British and Breed's Hill ; and the Ger- 
berus, of thirty-six guns, maintained a continual 
fire during the action. These vessels were most 
advantageously situated for the purposes of the 
enemy, and it seemed almost impossible that the 
sentries could have been wakeful at their posts, 
and not have overheard or suspected the opera- 
tions of the hill. Either dullness in them, or 
4 



38 BATTLE OF BTJNKER HILL* 

wonderful caution and unbroken harmony among 
the provincials, must have secured the unbroken 
repose of those midnight hours. 

The brief interval of darkness after the labors 
of intrenching had commenced, at last gave place 
to the grey of early morning. On that moment, 
when the sun sent forth the first heralds of his 
coming, seems to have been suspended the inter- 
ests of nations. Then was the moment for peace 
to insinuate her mild influences, before brutal 
passions had been kindled at the roar of can- 
non and the flow of blood. If true patriotism, if 
wise policy, if the love which Christian people, of 
the same lineage, should bear to each other, had 
been allowed its full free influence over the par- 
ties in the approaching struggle, how much agony 
and wo, and fruitless wretchedness, might have 
been averted. Even then it Avas not too late for 
justice to have ensured peace. Even then a 
vessel was on her way to the mother country, 
bearing yet another earnest petition from her in- 
jured colonists, for a redress of grievances ; but 
the same ocean which was transmitting her fruit- 
less message, was already crowded with a hostile 
fleet coming hither with the instruments of death ; 
and on the very day of the battle, and upon the 
eve before, reinforcements of foreign troops had 
entered the harbor. 

The blood shed at Concord and Lexington, 
with the long list of antecedent outrages, might 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 39 

have been forgiven by our fathers. They had 
not been the aggressors ; they acted only on the 
defensive ; they struck a blow only to ward off a 
blow. There is no evidence that the heisfhts of 
Charlestown were occupied for any other purpose 
than that of defence, to confine the enemy within 
their narrow quarters, and to prevent any more 
hostile incursions into the country. When the 
morning sun displayed to the astonished invaders 
the character of the last night's labor, and showed 
them the workmen still employed, with undis- 
mayed hearts and untired hands, it was not even 
then too late for peace. Gage and his officers, at 
least, if their hired subordinates did not, should 
have honored, though they might not have feared 
that patriot band ; should have respected the 
spirit which controlled them, and should have 
counted the cost of the bloody issue. But not 
one moment, not one word, perhaps not one 
thought, was spent upon intercession or warning. 
The instant that the first beams of light mark- 
ed distinctly the outlines of the Americans, and 
of their intrenchraents upon the hill, the cannon 
of the Lively, which floated nearest, opened a hot 
fire upon them, at the same time arousing the 
sleepers in Boston, to come forth as spectators or 
actors in the cruel tragedy. The other armed 
vessels, some floating batteries, and the battery 
on Copp's Hill, combined to pour forth their 
volleys, uttering a startling and dismal note of 



40 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

preparation for the day's conflict. But the works, 
lliough not completed, were in a state of such 
forwardness that the missiles of destruction 
fell harmless, and the intrenchers continued to 
strengthen their position. The enemy in Boston 
could scarcely credit their eyesight. Prescott, 
the hero of the day, with whom its proudest fame 
should rest, was undaunted, ardent, and full of 
heroic energy. He planned and directed, he 
encouraged the men, he mounted the works, and 
with his bald head uncovered, and his command- 
ing frame, he was a noble personification of a 
patriot cause. Some of the men incautiously 
ventured in front of the works, when one of them 
was instantly killed by a cannon shot. This 
first victim was buried in the ditch, and his com- 
panions were fearfully warned of the fatalities 
which the day would bring yet nearer to them. 

When the orders had been issued at Cam- 
bridge, the night before, to those who had thus 
complied with them, refreshments and reinforce- 
ments had been promised in the morning. Thus 
some of the men might have thought they had 
fulfilled their part of the work, and were entitled 
to relief, or were at liberty to depart. Some few, 
when the first victim fell, left the hill, and did 
not return. Those who remained were exhausted 
with their toil, and without food or water, and 
the morning was already intensely hot. The 
officers, sympathizing with their situation and 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 41 

sufferings, requested Prescott to send to Cam- 
bridge for relief. He summoned a council of 
war, but was resolute against the petition, saying 
that the enemy would not venture an attack, and 
if they did venture, would be defeated ; that the 
men who had raised the works were best able to 
defend them, and deserved the honor of the vic- 
tory; that they had already learned to despise 
the fire of the enemy. The vehemence of Pres- 
cott infused new spirit into the men, and they 
resolved to stand the dread issue. Prescott or- 
dered a guard to the ferry to prevent a landing 
there. He was seen by Gage, who was recon- 
noitring from Copp's Hill, and who inquired 
of Counsellor Willard, by his side, " 'V^'Tio is 
that officer commanding ? " Willard recognised 
his brother-in-law, and named Colonel Prescott. 
"Will he fight?" asked Gage. The answer 
was, " Yes, sir, depend upon it, to the last drop 
of blood in him ; but I cannot answer for his 
men." Yet Prescott could answer for his men, 
and that amounted to the same thing. 

The measures of the enemy were undoubtedly 
delayed by sheer amazement and surprise, on 
finding that the intrepidity of the provincials had 
anticipated them in an enterprise upon which 
they had deliberately decided. In the council 
of war called by Gage, all were unanimous that 
the enemy must be dislodged, but there was a 
diflference of opinion as to the manner of effecting 
4# 



4Si BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

this object. The majority agreed with Generals 
Chnton and Grant, in advising that the British 
troops should he embarked at the bottom of the 
Common, in boats, and, under the protection of 
the ships and floating batteries, should land at 
Charlestown, and thus hold the provincials and 
their intrenchments at their mercy. But General 
Gage overruled the advice, and determined upon 
landing and making an attack in front of the 
works, fearing that his troops, if landed at the 
Neck, would be ruinously surrounded by the in- 
trenchers and the whole army at Cambridge. 

Meanwhile, General Ward, though repeatedly 
solicited by General Putnam, who had been at 
the ground by night, or early in the morning, 
and by messengers sent from Prescott, hesitated 
about weakening the strength of the mam army 
by sending reinforcements to the Heights ; for, as 
the enemy had not yet landed, he had good 
reason to fear that they might divide their forces, 
and, while engaging with the intrenchers, eifect a 
landing at some other spot, and proceed to Water- 
town or Cambridge, where the scanty stores of 
the provincials were deposited. 

By nine o'clock, the preparations in Boston, 
heard and seen by Prescott on the hill, informed 
him of the determination of the British to attack. 
He therefore gave up his first opinion, that they 
would not dare to resist bim, and comforted him- 
self and his men with the promise of certain and 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL* 43 

glorious victory. He sent Major Brooks to Gen- 
eral Ward, to urge the necessity of his being 
reinforced. Brooks, being obliged to proceed on 
foot, as Captain Gridley would not risk one of 
his artillery horses to pass the Neck, which was 
swept by the Glasgow frigate, arrived about ten 
o'clock at head-quarters, where the Committee 
of Safety were then in session. Brooks's ur- 
gency, seconded by the solicitations of Richard 
Devens, a member of the Committee, and a citizen 
of Charlestown, induced General Ward to order 
that Colonels Reed and Stark, then at Medford, 
should reinforce Prescott with the New Hamp- 
shire troops. The companies at Chelsea were 
then recalled, and the order reached Medford at 
eleven o'clock. The men were as speedily as 
possible provided with ammunition, though much 
time was consumed in the preparation. Each 
man received two flints, a gill of powder, and 
fifteen balls. They were without cartridge-boxes, 
and used powder-horns and pouches, or their 
pockets, as substitutes, and in making up their 
cartridges, they were obliged to beat and shape 
their balls according to the different calibre of 
their guns. 

Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the most distm- 
guished and self-sacriiicing of the many patriots 
of the time, had not yet taken the commission 
which was granted to him on the 14th of June. 
He had twice maintained the cause of liberty 



44 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

in the very teeth of British officers, on the 
annual commemoration of the 5th of March. 
When the report of the coming action reached 
him at Watertown, where he then was, as acting 
President of the Provincial Congress and Chair- 
man of the Committee of Safety, though suffering 
from illness and exhaustion, he resolved to join 
in the strife. Wholly inexperienced as he was 
in military tactics, his determination could not 
be shaken hy the earnest remonstrances of his 
friends. His presence and counsel were needed 
in the Committee, but he persisted in his resolve, 
and we must lament, as all his contemporaries 
lamented, that his heroism outran his prudence, 
and would not be controlled by duty in another 
direction. / 

The hostile arrangements of the British being 
concluded, the devoted band upon the slightly 
fortified hill soon saw the result. At noon, 
twenty-eight barges, formed in two parallel lines, 
left the end of Long Wharf, and made for Mor- 
ton's Point, the most feasible landing-place. The 
barges were crowded with British troops of the 
5th, 3Sth, 43d. and 52d battalions of infantry 
two companies of grenadiers, and ten of light 
infantry. These troops were all splendidly ap- 
pointed, with glittering firelocks and bayonets, 
but sadly encumbered, for the hot work before 
them and the hot sun above them, by their arms 
and ammunition, and it would seem by the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 45 

statement of their own historian, Stedman, that 
they carried a hundred pounds of provision, 
intended to last for three days. Their regular 
and uniform appearance, with six pieces of ord- 
nance shining" in the bows of the leading barges, 
presented an imposing and alarming spectacle to 
our raw soldiery. A part of the regulars that had 
lately arrived, had been retained on board of the 
transports, on account of the crowded state of 
Boston. A part of these were landed for the first 
time at Charlestown, and thus the first spot of 
American soil upon which many of them trod, 
became to them a grave. The officers were all 
men of experience and valor: Generals Howe 
and Pigot, Colonels NesLit, Abercrombie, and 
Clarke, Majors Butler, Williams, Bruce, Spend- 
love, Smelt, Mitchell, Pitcairn, Short, Small, and 
Lord Rawdon, were the most distinguished. 
Captain Addison, related to the author of the 
" Spectator," had arrived in Boston on the day 
before the battle, and had then accepted an invi- 
tation to dine with General Burgoyne on the 
17th, when a far different experience awaited 
him, for he was numbered among the slain. 

This detachment landed at Morton's Point 
about one o'clock, defended by the shipping, and 
wholly unmolested. They soon discovered an 
egregious and provoking act of carelessness on 
the part of their master of ordnance, in send- 
ing over cannon-balls too large for their pieces. 



46 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

They were immediately returned to Boston, and 
were not replaced in season for the first action. 
At the same time, General Howe, the commander 
of the detachment, requested of General Gage a 
reinforcement, which he thought to be necessary 
the moment that he had a fair view of the ele- 
vated and formidable position of the provincials, 
as seen from the Point. 

While these messages were passing, some of 
the British troops, stretched at their ease upon 
the grass, eat in peace their last meal, refreshing 
their thirst from large tubs of drink, — a tanta- 
lizing sight to the provincials. About two o'clock 
the reinforcement landed at Madlin's ship-yard, 
now the navy-yard. It consisted of the 47th bat- 
talion of infantry, a battalion of marines, and some 
more companies of grenadiers and light infantry. 
The whole number of British troops who engaged 
in the course of the action did not fall short of, 
and probably exceeded, 4,000. In connection 
with this force, which far surpassed that of the 
provincials in numbers, and was immeasurably 
superior to them in discipline and military appoint- 
ments, we are to consider the marines in the ships, 
which completely cannonaded three sides of the 
hill, and the six-gun battery on Copp's Hill, as 
engaging in the unequal contest. Contrasting 
a British regular with a provincial soldier, we 
are accustomed to ascribe immense advantages 
of discipline to the former. Yet we are to re- 



BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 47 

JTiember that an overpowering superiority of 
character and of cause was on the side of the 
latter. If we could have followed a recruiting 
sergeant of Great Britain at that time, as he 
hunted out from dram-shops and the haunts of 
idleness and vice, the low and vulgar inebriate, 
the lawless and dissolute spendthrift, seeing how 
well the sergeant knew where to look for his 
recruits, we should know how much discipline 
could do for them, and how much it must leave 
undone. The provincials were not acquainted 
with the forms and terms of military tactics ; but 
they knew the difference between half-cock and 
double-cock, and the more they hated the vermin 
which they had been used to hunt with their 
fowling-pieces, the straighter did the bullet speed 
from the muzzle. But their superiority consisted 
in the kind of pay which they were to receive, 
not in pounds and shillings, but in a free land, a 
happy home, and rulers of their own choice. 

While the British troops were forming their 
lines, a slight work was constructed by the 
Connecticut troops, sent from the redoubt, under 
Captain Knowlton, which proved of essential 
service to the provincials. A rail fence, under 
a small part of which a stone wall was piled to 
the height of about two feet, ran from the road 
which crossed the tongue of land between the 
hills, to the bank of the Mystic, Avith a few apple 
trees on each side of it. The provincials pulled 



46 BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 

"Up some other fences near by, and set them in a 
line parallel with this, filling the space between 
with the fresh mown hay around the ground. 
The length of this slight defence was about 700 
feet. It was about 600 feet in rear of the re- 
doubt and breastwork, and had it been on a line 
with them, would have left a space of about 
100 feet between the ends of the earthen and the 
wooden defences. Thus there was an opening 
of about 700 feet on the slope of the hill between 
the intrenchments and the rail fence, which the 
provincials had not time to secure. Part of this 
intervening space then, as now, was sloughy, and 
as there were no means of defending it save a 
few scattered trees, the troops behind the breast- 
work were exposed to a galling fire from the ene- 
my, on their third attack, which finally brought 
about the unfavorable issue of the strife. The 
six pieces of British artillery were stationed at 
first upon Morton's Hill. 

All these preparations, visible as they were to 
thousands upon the neighboring hill-tops, steeples 
and house-roofs, were watched with the intensest 
anxiety. Undoubtedly, the common persuasion 
and fear was, that General Gage would himself 
lead a portion, if not the whole of the residue of 
his army, upon an attack at some other point in 
the semi-circle. Roxbury was heavily cannon- 
aded, to retain the forces there from proceeding 
to Charlestown. A schooner, with 500 or 600 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 49 

men, was directed to the Cambridge shore, but 
wind and tide proved unfavorable. In fear of 
these movements, great caution was advisable in 
sending reinforcements upon the hill. Captain 
Callender was ordered there with his artillery. 
Gardner's, Patterson's, and Doolittle's regiments 
were stationed at different points between Charles- 
town Neck and Cambridge. This Neck, though 
frequently passed by our officers and troops in 
single file, was fearfully hazardous during the 
whole day, as it was raked by a fire of round, 
bar and chain shot, from the Glasgow, and from 
two armed gondolas near the shore. The rein- 
forcements arrived from Medford before the en- 
gagement, though General Stark had led them 
very moderately, insisting that " one fresh man 
in battle is Avorth ten fatigued ones." General 
Putnam stopped a part of them to unite with a 
detachment from the redoubt in attempting to 
fortify Bunker's Hill, which was of great con- 
sequence to the provincials in case of a retreat. 
Stark, with oaths and encouragements, led on the 
remainder to the rail fence. 

It soon became a matter of importance to the 
provincials to seek the utmost possible help from 
their artillery, but it amounted to very little. A 
few ineffectual shot had been fired from Gridley's 
pieces in the redoubt, against Copp's Hill and the 
shipping, when the pieces were removed and 
placed with Captain Callender at the space 
5 



50 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

between the fence and the breastwork. Here 
they would have been of some service in defend- 
ing our weakest and most exposed point. But 
the officers and the companies who had them in 
charge, were wholly ignorant of their manage- 
ment ; and, on the plea of having unsuitable car- 
tridges, Callender was drawing his guns off to 
prepare ammunition, when Putnam urged him 
to return. The pieces were fired a few times, 
and soon afterwards were moved by Captain 
Ford to the rail fence. 

General Pomeroy, at Cambridge, old as he 
was, was moved like the war-horse at the smell 
of the battle. He begged a horse of General 
Ward that he might ride to Charlestown, but on 
reaching the neck, and observing the hot fire 
which raked it, he was afraid to risk the borrow- 
ed animal. Givinof him then in charge to a 
sentry, he wallved on to the rail fence, where 
his well-known form and countenance called forth 
enthusiastic shouts. Colonel Little came up with 
his regiment, and the men were stationed along 
the line, from the rail fence on the left to a cart- 
way. There were also reinforcements, of about 
300 troops each, from Brewer's, Nixon's, Wood- 
bridge's, and Doolittle's regiments, detachments 
of which were stationed along the main street in 
Charlestown.' Colonel Scammans, who was de- 
prived of his sense and his courage, either by 
confusion or fear, had been ordered by General 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 61 

"Ward to go where the fighting was. He went 
to Lechmere's Point, understanding, as he said, 
that the enemy were landing there. He was 
advised to go to the Hill. He chose to under- 
stand the nearest hill, and so he posted himself 
upon Cohble Hill, where the Insane Hospital 
now stands, and occupied that useless position. 
General Warren arrived just before the action. 
Putnam endeavored to dissuade him from enter- 
ing it, and then recommended to him a safe 
place, and offered to receive his orders. But 
Warren could not be thus wrought upon. He 
said he came only as a volunteer, and, instead of 
seeking a place of safety, wished to know where 
the onset would be most furious. Putnam point- 
ed to the redoubt as the place of danger and 
importance. Prescott there offered to receive 
Warren's orders, but he again said he was happy 
to serve as a volunteer. 

The tune of Yankee Doodle, which afforded 
the British so much sport as ridiculing the pro- 
vincials, was the tune by which our fathers were 
led on to that contest. Let their example com- 
mend to us this only way of depriving ridicule 
of its sting; for there is nothing which it so 
much annoys men to spend in vain as their scorn. 

Before the engagement commenced, Captain 
Walker, of Chelmsford, led a band of about fifty 
resolute men down into Charlestovni to annoy 
the enemy's left flank. They did great execution, 



52 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

and then abandoned their dangerous position, to 
attack the right flank upon Mystic river. Here 
the captain was wounded and taken prisoner. 
He died of his wounds in Boston jail. 

The British, in their attack, aimed at two 
distinct objects : first, to force and carry the re- 
doubt ; second, to turn the left flank of our troops, 
and thus to cut off their retreat. To accomplish 
the former, General Pigot, who commanded the 
British left wing, displayed under cover of the 
eastern slope of the hill, and advanced against 
the redoubt and breastwork. General Howe led 
the right wing, which advanced along the shore 
of the Mystic to the rail fence. The artillery 
prepared the way for the infantry, and it was at 
this time that the mistake of the oversized balls 
was a great grievance to the enemy, as they had 
but a few rounds of proper shot. 

It was of vital necessity that every charge of 
powder and ball spent by the Americans, should 
take effect. There was none for waste. The 
ofiicers commanded their men to withhold their 
fire till the enemy were within eight rods, and 
when they could see the whites of their eyes, to 
aim at their waistbands ; also to " aim at the hand- 
some coats, and pick ofl" the commanders." As 
the British left wing came within gun-shot, the 
men in the redoubt could scarcely restrain their 
fire, and a few discharged their pieces. Prescott, 
indignant at this disobedience, vowed instant 



BAtTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 53 

death to any one who should repeat it, and prom- 
ised, by the confidence which they reposed in 
him, to give the command at the proper moment. 
His Lieutenant Colonel, Robinson, ran round the 
top of the works and knocked up the muskets. 
When the space between the assailants and the 
redoubt was narrowed to the appointed span, the 
word was spoken at the moment; the deadly 
flashes burst forth, and the green grass was 
crimsoned with the life-blood of hundreds. The 
front rank was nearly obliterated, as were its 
successive substitutes, as the Americans were 
well protected, and were deliberate in their aim. 
The enemy fell like the tall grass which grew 
around before the practised sweep of the mower. 
General Pigot was obliged to give the word for a 
retreat. Some of the wounded were seen crawl- 
ing with the last energies of life from the gory 
heap of the dying and the dead, among whom 
the officers, by their proportion, far outnumbered 
the private soldiers. As the wind rolled away 
the suffocating smoke, and the blasts of the artil- 
lery and the musketry for a moment ceased, the 
awful spectacle, the agonizing yells and shrieks 
of the sufferers, were distracting and piercing. 
Prayers and groans, foul, impious oaths, and fond 
invocations of the loved and the dear, were min- 
gled into sounds which scarcely seemed of human 
utterance, by the rapturous shout of victory which 
rang from the redoubt. The earth has not a 
6^ 



64 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL-. 

sight or sound more maddening, in its passion or 
its wo, than a battle-field. The fabled pit beneath 
the earth then opens from its bowels, and covers 
its fair surface with the flames and yells of 
demon strife. 

While such was the temporary aspect of the 
field near the redoubt, General Howe, with the 
right wing, made for the rail fence, where Put- 
nam, assisted by Captain Ford's company, had 
posted the artillery with success. Here, as at the 
redoubt, some of the provincials were tempted 
to discharge their muskets while the advancing 
enemy were destroying a fence which crossed 
their path. Putnam, with an oath, threatened to 
cut down with his sword the next offender. The 
word was given when the enemy were within 
eight rods. The artillery had already made a 
lane through the column, and now the fowling- 
pieces mowed down their victims, especially the 
officers, with fearful celerity. The assailants 
were compelled to retreat, leaving behind tliem 
heaps of the fallen, while some of the flying even 
hurried to their boats. Their artillery had stop- 
ped in the slough among the brick-kilns, and 
could do but little. The regulars did not take 
aim, and their shot passed high over the heads 
of the Americans. The trees around were af- 
terwards observed with their trunks unscathed, 
while their branches were riddled through and 
through. The passionate shout of victory again 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 65 

rang through the American lines, and even the 
coward was nerved to daring. 

Now it was that our troops and our cause suf- 
fered from the want of discipline, and from the 
confusion apparent in the whole management of 
the action, originating in the hasty and imperfect 
preparation, and in their ignorance of the pur- 
poses of the enemy. The Neck of land ploughed 
by the engines of death, and clouded by the dust 
thus raised, was an almost insuperable obstacle to 
the bringing on of reinforcements. Major Grid- 
ley, wholly unfitted in spirit and in skill, had been 
put in command of a battalion of infantry in com- 
pliment to his father. He lost, and could not 
recover, his self-possession and courage. Though 
ordered to the hill, he advanced towards Charles- 
town slowly and fearfully ; and though urged by 
Colonel Frye to hasten, he was satisfied with the 
poor service of firing three-pounders from Cobble 
Hill upon tbe Glasgow. His Captain, Trevett, 
refused obedience to such weakness, and ordered 
his men to follow him to the works. Colonel 
Gerrish, with his artillery on Bunker's Hill, 
could neither be urged nor intimidated by Put- 
nam to bring his pieces to the rail fence. He 
was unwieldy with corpulence, and overcome 
with heat and fatigue. His men had been scat- 
tered from the summit of the hill, by the shot 
from the Glasgow, which took tremendous effect 
here, as it was thought to be strongly fortified. 



66 BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 

The enemy rallied for a second attack. Though 
they had sorely suffered, and some few of the 
officers were reluctant to renew the fatal effort, 
yet the large body, like the general, would have 
yielded to death in any form of horror, before 
they would have left the field to those whom they 
had always represented as cowards. At this 
crisis four hundred reinforcements came over 
from Boston to repair the British loss, and Dr. 
Jeffries accompanied them as surgeon. The reg- 
ulars again steadily advanced, and with the 
dreadful apathy of feeling induced by a battle- 
field, they even piled up the bodies of their 
slaughtered comrades as a breastwork for their 
own protection. The artillery was now drawn 
up by the read which divided the tongue of land 
on the Mystic from the hill, to within nine hun- 
dred feet of the rail fence. The object was to 
bring it on a line with the redoubt, and to open a 
way for the infantry. It was during this second 
attack that Charlestown was set on fire. Proba- 
bly a double purpose was intended by this act : 
first, that the smoke might cover the advance of 
the enemy, and second, to dislodge some of the 
provincials, who from the shelter of the houses 
had annoyed the British left wing. General 
Howe sent over the order to Burgoyne and Clin- 
ton to fire the town, and the order was fulfilled 
by carcasses thrown from Copp's Hill, which, 



BATTLE OF BUJiKER HILL. 57 

aided by some marines who landed from the 
Somerset, completed the work of desolation. 

The Americans were prepared for the renewed 
attack. They had orders to reserve their fire till 
the enemy were within six rods, and then to take 
deadly aim. As before, the shot of the enemy 
was mostly ineffectual, ranging far above the 
heads of the provincials. Still, some of the pri- 
vates fell, and Colonels Brewer, Nixon and Euck- 
minster, and Major Moore, were wounded, the 
latter mortally, crying out in his death-thirst for 
water, which could not be obtained nearer than 
the Neck, whither two of his men went to seek it. 
The British stood, for a time whose moments 
were hours, the deadly discharge which was 
poured upon them as they passed the appointed 
line, while whole ranks of officers and men fell 
in heaps. General Howe stood in the thickest 
of the fight, wrought up to a desperate determin- 
ation. For a time he was almost alone, his aid- 
de-camps, and many other officers of his staff, 
lying wounded or dead. But though he would 
not lead a second retreat, he was compelled to 
follow it, and to hear the repeated shouts of vic- 
tory rise from the patriot band who had weighed 
the choice between death and slavery. Thus 
the British were twice fairly and completely 
driven from the hill. For success up to this 
moment, the provincials have not had the de- 
served acknowledgment in the English histories. 



•58 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

Even Burke (if, as is probable, he wrote the 
account in the Annual Reg-ister) refers only once 
to the repulse, and then merelv says the regulars 
" were thrown into some disorder." 

But now the fortunes of the day were to be 
reversed, so far, and so far only, as to attach the 
bare name of victory to the side of the foreign 
assailants. The provincials encouraged them- 
selves with the hope that the two repulses which 
had compelled the regulars to retire with such 
stupendous loss, would deter them from a renewed 
attack. Some of the British officers did indeed 
remonstrate against leading the men to another 
butchery, but their remonstrance was disdainfully 
repelled by their comrades. During the second 
attack, a provincial, with incautious loudness of 
speech, had declared that the ammunition was 
exhausted, and he was overheard by some of the 
regulars. General Clinton, who from Copp's 
Hill had witnessed the repeated repulse of his 
Majesty's troops with great mortification, took a 
boat and passed over as a volunteer, bringing 
with him added reinforcements. A new mode 
of attack was now determined upon. General 
Howe, having discovered that weak point, the 
space between the breastwork and the rail fence, 
now led the left wing, and resolved to apply the 
main strength of the assault against the redoubt 
and the breastwork, particularly to rake the latter 
with the artillery from the left, while he disguised 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 59 

tliis purpose by a feigned show of force at the rail 
fence. The men now divested themselves of 
their heavy knapsacks, some of them even of 
their coats. They were ordered to stand the fire 
of the provincials, and then to make a resolute 
charge at the point of the bayonet. The three 
facts last mentioned, viz., the knowledge of the 
enemy that the provincials lacked ammunition, 
the encouragement of the presence of General 
Clinton, and the discovery of the weak point in 
the works, may have nerved the British to under- 
take a third attack. 

While these hostile preparations were in pro- 
gress, the little band of devoted patriots, exhausted 
almost to complete prostration by their long and 
unrefreshed toil of the night, and by the bloody 
work of noon-day, had time to summon their 
remaining energies, to resolve that the last blow 
should be the heaviest, to think upon the glory 
of their cause and the laurels they should forever 
wear. The few remaining cartridges were dis- 
tributed by Prescott. The small number of men 
whose muskets were furnished with bayonets, 
stood ready to repel the charge ; and those who 
were without this defence, as well as without 
ammunition, resolved to club their muskets and 
wield their heavy stocks, while the ferocity of 
despair strung every nerve. Even the loose 
stones of the intrenchments were gladly secured 
as the last stay of an unflinching resolution. 



60 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

A body of reinforcements, fresh and resolute, 
and provided with bayonets, might have forced 
the regulars to a third and final retreat ; but, as 
before remarked, unavoidable confusion prevailed 
in the American cam.p. The Neck of land, the 
only line of communication, wore a terrible aspedt 
to raw recruits, and General Ward was without 
staff officers to convey his orders. The regiments 
which had been stationed along the road to wait 
further commands, were overlooked. Colonel 
Gardner, though thus left without orders, panting 
to join the strife, led 300 men to Bunker's Hill, 
where Putnam first set them upon intrenching, 
but soon urged them to action at the lines. The 
Colonel commanded his men to drop their tools 
and follow. He was leading them to the post of 
dangerous service, when he received a mortal 
wound by a musket-ball in the groin. As he was 
borne off the field, he commanded his men to 
conquer or die. Deprived of their officer, but few 
of them engaged in the action. His son, a youth 
of nineteen, met him on his way, and, overcome 
with grief, sought to aid him, but the father com- 
manded him to march to his duty. Colonel 
Scammans remained on Cobble Hill, but a de- 
tachment of Gerrish's regiment, under their 
Danish Adjutant, Ferbiger, rushed toward the 
fence. A few of the Americans occupied two or 
three houses and barns on the slope of Breed's 



BATTLE OF BXTNKER HILL. 61 

Hill> and annoyed, for a time, the left flank of the 
enemy. 

The artillery of the British effected its mur- 
derous purpose, raking the whole interior of the 
breastwork, driving its defenders into the redoubt, 
and sending the balls there after them, through 
the open sally-port. Lieutenant Prescott, a 
nephew of the Colonel, had his arm disabled, 
and was told by his uncle to content himself with 
encouraging his men ; but, having succeeded in 
loading his musket, he was passing the sally-port 
to seek a rest from which to fire it, when he was 
killed by a cannon-ball. It was evident that the 
intrenchments could no longer be maintained, but 
the resolution to yield them only in the convul- 
sion of the last effort, nerved every patriot arm. 

The British officers were seen to goad on some 
of their reluctant men with their swords. It was 
for them now to receive the fire, and to reserve 
their own till they could follow it by a thrust of 
the bayonet. Each shot of the provincials was 
true to its aim. Colonel Abercrombie, Majors 
Williams and Spendlove, fell. General Howe 
was wounded in the foot. Hand to hand, and 
face to face, were exchanged the last awful hos- 
tilities of that day. Only a ridge of earth divided 
the grappling combatants, whose feet were slip- 
ping upon the gory sand, while they joined in 
the mortal strife. When the enemy found them^ 
selves received with stones, the missiles of a 
6 



62 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

more ancient warfare, they knew that their work 
was nearly done, as they now contended with 
unarmed men. Young Richardson, of the Royal 
Irish, was the first who scaled the parapet, and 
he fell, as did likewise the first rank that mounted 
it, among whom Major Pitcairn, who had shed 
the first blood at Lexington, was shot by a negro 
soldier. It was only when the redoubt was 
crowded with the enemy and the defenders in 
one promiscuous throng, and assailants on all 
sides were pouring into it, that Prescott, no less, 
but even more a hero, when he uttered the reluc- 
tant word, ordered a retreat. A longer trial 
would have been folly, not courage. Some of 
the men had splintered their musket-stocks in 
fierce blows, nearly all were defenceless, yet was 
there that left within them, in a dauntless soul, 
which might still help their country at its need. 
Prescott gave the crowning proof of his devoted 
and magnanimous spirit, when he cooled the heat 
of his own brain, and bore the bitter pang in his 
own heart, by commanding an orderly, and still 
resisting retreat. He was the hero of that blood- 
dyed summit, — the midnight leader and guard, 
the morning sentinel, the orator of the opening 
strife, the cool and deliberate overseer of the 
whole struggle, the well-skilled marksman of the 
exact distance at which a shot was certain death : 
he was the venerable chief in whose bright eye 
and steady nerve all read their duty ; and when 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 63 

conduct, skill, and courage could do no more, he 
was the merciful deliverer of the remnant. Pres- 
cott was the hero of the day, and wherever its 
tale is told, let him be its chieftain. 

The troops in the redoubt now fought their 
pathway through the encircling enemy, turning 
their faces towards the foe, while they retreated 
with backward steps. Gridley, who had planned 
and defended the works, received a wound, and 
was borne off. Warren was among the last to 
leave the redoubt, and at a short distance from it, 
a musket-ball through his head killed him in- 
stantly. When the corpse of that illustrious 
patriot was recognised and identified the next 
morning by Dr. Jeffries, General Howe thought 
that this one victim well repaid the loss of num- 
bers of his mercenaries. It is not strange that, 
both in English and American narratives of that 
day, and in some subsequent notices of it, Warren 
should have been represented as the commander 
of the provincial forces. His influence and his 
patriotism were equally well known to friend and 
foe. There is no more delicate task than to 
divide among many heroes the honors of a battle- 
field, and the rewards of devoted service. Yet 
the high-minded will always appreciate the integ- 
rity of the motive which seeks to distinguish 
between the places and the modes of service, 
where those who alike love their country enjoy 
the opportunity of securing the laurels of heroism 



64 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

and devotion. The council-chamber and the 
forum, and the high place in the public assembly, 
offer to the patriot-statesman tha opportunity for 
winning remembrance and honor to his name ; 
the battle-field must retain the same high privi- 
lege for the patriot-soldier, for there alone can he 
earn the wreath. Let the chivalry and the mag- 
nanimity of Warren forever fill a brilliant page in 
our history, but let not a partial homage attach to 
him the honor to which another has a rightful 
claim. It was no part of his pure purpose, in 
mingling with his brethren on that field, to mo- 
nopolize its honors, and to figure as its hero. It 
is enough that he stood among equals in devo- 
tion and patriotism. Here, then, is his claim, 
which, when fully allowed, leaves the honors of 
that summit to the leader of the heroic band. 

And while such was the issue at the redoubt, 
the left wing, at the rail fence, aided by some 
reinforcements which had arrived too late, was 
making a vigorous stand at their defences. But 
the retreat at the redoubt compelled the resolute 
defenders to yield with slow and reluctant steps, 
as their flank was opened to the enemy. Putnam 
pleaded and cursed; he commanded and implored 
the scattering bands to rally, and he swore that 
he would win them the victor)^ For his foul 
profanity he made a sincere confession before 
the church and congregation of which he was a 
member, after the war. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 65 

Pomeroy likewise implored the men to rally, 
but in vain. The last resistance at the rail fence 
restrained the enemy from cutting off the retreat 
of the provincials. Yet the enemy were in no 
condition to pursue, as they were alike exhausted, 
and were content with the little patch of ground 
which they had so dearly purchased. The pro- 
vincials retreated to Cambridge by the Neck, and 
by the Winter Hill road, taking with them only 
one of the six pieces of artillery which they had 
brought to the field. The battle had occupied 
about two hours, the provincials retreating just 
before five o'clock. The British lay on their 
arms at Bunker Hill all night, discharging their 
pieces against the Americans who were safely 
encamped upon Prospect Hill, at the distance of 
a mile. 

Prescott repaired to head-quarters to make 
return of his trust. He was indignant at the loss 
of the battle, and implored General Ward to com- 
mit to him three fresh regiments, promising with 
them to win back the day. But he had already 
honorably accomplished all that his country might 
demand. He complained bitterly that the rein- 
forcements, which might have given to his tri- 
umph the completeness that was needed to make 
it a victory, had failed him. A year afterwards, 
when he was in the American camp at New 
York, he was informed how narrowly he had 
escaped with life. A British sergeant, who was 
6=* 



66 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

brought into the camp, on meeting with Prescott 
there, called him by name. Prescott inquired 
how or where he had kno\^Ti him. The man 
replied that he knew him well, and that his 
acquaintance began at the battle in Charlestown. 
Prescott had there been pointed out to him as the 
commander, and in the first two attacks, he had 
singled him out and taken a deliberate aim. 
Though his position at each time was so favor- 
able as to convince him the shot would be fatal, 
yet Prescott had been unharmed. On the third 
attack, impelled by the same purpose, he had 
charged the commander at the point of the 
bayonet, but the strong arm and the sword of 
Prescott thrust aside the weapon, and the baf- 
fled sergeant concluded him to be invulnerable. 
Prescott kindly presented the poor soldier with 
a gift of charity to relieve his disappointment. 
The pierced garments of the hero, preserved in 
his family, bear witness to the repeated eflbrts of 
his foe. 

The number of our troops in the action, includ- 
ing the occasional reinforcements, and those who 
came only to cover the retreat, did not exceed, if 
it reached, 3,000. Of these, 115 were killed and 
missing, 305 were wounded, and 30 were taken 
prisoners ; making our whole loss 450. Pres- 
cott's regiment suffered most severely. 

The whole British loss was rated by the Pro- 
vincial Congress, on their best information, at 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 67 

1600, but Gage acknowledged only 1054, in- 
cluding 89 officers; 226 being killed, and 828 
wounded. 

Loud and agonizing was the mourning in 
Boston, when the wounded were committed to 
the crowded hospitals; and the sympathies of 
the inhabitants were demanded alike for friends 
and foes. 

But though the sword was lifted against our 
fathers by their own brethren, and in a cause 
which we must pronounce to have been unright- 
eous and tyrannical, we feel impelled to pay a 
just tribute to the bravery and gallantry of the 
British officers and soldiers upon the field. To 
march boldly forward, as they did thrice, and 
bare their bosoms to the weapons of desperate 
men, was a trial of their spirit which allows us to 
withhold from them no praise or glory which we 
give to our fathers, save that which belongs to our 
fathers as the champions of the better cause. The 
highest honor we can bestow upon the heroism 
of the enemy, is, in regretting that the king and 
his ministers found such devoted servants. 

It is not strange that confusion and disorder 
should have attended the proceedings of the pro- 
vincials on that dreadful day. Their m^easures 
were hastily concerted in anticipation of the occu- 
pancy of the Heights by the British ; there was 
no time to plan, no opportunity to deliberate. 
The Provincial Congress was then sitting at 



OS BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

"Watertown, though its President, Dr. Warren, 
who was also Chairman of the Executive Com- 
mittee of Safety, was in the scene of strife. 
General Ward's Orderly Book does not contain 
any reference to the action of the day. The 
reasonable expectation and fear that the British 
would make an attack at some other quarter, 
may explain the apparent remissness of the 
American leaders, in not concentrating all their 
force upon the action in Charlestown. The 
severe bombardment of Roxbury, and anxiety for 
the stores at Watertown, very naturally divided 
their attention. It seems likewise to have been 
difficult, even some days after the battle, to learn 
with exactness the chief particulars concerning it. 
The account in Edes' Gazette, which was printed 
at Watertown on the following Monday, is very 
meagre. Indeed, it would appear, that the death 
of Warren was not then known for certain. 
Among the resolutions of the Provincial Congress 
on Monday, the 19th, we read the following : 
"Resolved, That three o'clock, P. M., be assigned 
for the choice of a President of this Congress, in 
the room of the Hon. Joseph Warren, Esq., sup- 
posed to be killed in the late battle of Bunker 
Hill." 

In a letter from J. Pitts, dated, Watertown, 
July 20, 1775, and addressed to Samuel Adams, 
at Philadelphia, we read the following : " I find 
the letters in general from you and the rest of 



BJ.TTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 69 

our friends, complain of not having particular in- 
formation relative to the late battle of Charlestown. 
I do assure you, the particulars, any further than 
what I have already wrote you, I have not been 
able to obtain from any one. To be plain, it 
appears to me, there never was more confusion 
and less command. No one appeared to have any 
te Colonel Prescott, whose bravery can never be 
enough acknowledged and applauded. General 
Putnam was employed in collecting the men, but 
there were not officers enough to lead them on." 

More evidences of this confusion that attended 
the operations of the day, will present themselves 
to the reader of the Documents which form a part 
of this volume. He will find them to abound in 
discrepancies of statement, which, however, will, 
for the most part, correct and harmonize each 
other. One writer, for instance, says that it was 
known by the British on the night of the 16th, 
that the Americans were at work on the Heights. 
Of this statement there is no proof, nor is it prob- 
able ; yet it may have been that a vague report 
of the intention of the Americans had reached 
Boston. Another writer says that the American 
force amounted to nine thousand. Probably he 
intended in this estimate to include all the pro- 
vincials who were then under arms at Cambridge 
and Roxbury, as well as those at Charlestown. 

The conflagration of the town of Charlestown 
must have mingled wild and fearful spectacles 



l70 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

with the awful scene of blood. The order for the 
. incendiary measure was sent over by boat to the 
generals on Copp's Hill, on account of the annoy- 
ing fire which the Americans, concealed in the 
dwellings, poured in upon the left wing of the 
British. The town then contained 289 dwelling- 
houses, and its population, of 375 families, num- 
bered rather more than 2,000 souls. Of course, 
many of its inhabitants, especially the women 
and children, had been removed from the town 
during the night and on the morning of the battle. 
Householders were busily engaged in removing 
their effects. Many valuable articles were buried 
in the fields, gardens, and cellars, most of which, 
however, were discovered by the British in their 
long occupation of the peninsula, though some of 
the treasures of crockery and furniture which were 
here interred, found a safe concealment till after 
the evacuation of Boston, and are still cherished 
as honored relics by the descendants of their 
owners. Many of the householders and traders 
of Boston, who had removed their effects to 
Charlestown on the commencement of hostilities, 
likev/ise lost their all. The newspapers of the 
time abound in advertisements of losses and 
thefts. Dr. Mather's library was consumed in 
the conflagration. The American prisoners suf- 
fered great hardships. They were confined in 
the jail in Boston, during the siege, where several 
of them perished. The survivors were taken to 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 71 

Halifax by the British on their departure. Some 
few of them, after incredible trials, succeeded in 
making their escape, and returning to their homes 
one by one, told their moving tales. It was not, 
however, until after the peace, that the remnant 
was restored. 

Such is but a faint delineation of the action 
which has associated so great a degree of interest 
with the Heights of Charlestown. The intrench- 
ing and the defence of Breed's Hill may be 
described as the most important incident in the 
war of the American Revolution. The whole 
protracted struggle was decisively influenced by 
this its opening contest. The battle was fought by 
the provincials in earnest, with determined spirit, 
with proud success, though not with the name of 
victory, and therefore it gave the impulse of a 
good beginning to the whole conduct of the war. 
Its results will attest its importance. 

The battle accomplished what in all cases of 
strife and discord is attended with protracted 
difficulties : it distinguished the two contending 
parties, and brought them to an issue. There 
were then several links of union between England 
and the Colonies, formed by the various orders, 
classes, and coteries, then gathered in this neigh- 
borhood, and by their diverse opinions. Some 
of the most worthy and disinterested inhabitants 
of the provinces, and some of the British officers, 
engaged with extreme reluctance in the hostil- 



72: BATTLE OF BUNKER HILt* 

ities. We ha^ among us not only tories and 
republicans, the extremes of party, but also timid 
and cautious timeservers and hesitants, and at- 
tached friends to the restricted exercise of royal 
authority. There were moderate and immoderate 
men of both parties ; neutral and lukewarm 
doubters of no party. While reading the jounals 
of that day, we can readily imagine the thousand 
social ties and domestic relations, the civilities of 
neighborhood, and the common interest in the 
land across the water, which might well render it 
difficult for the provincials to make the last appeal 
to blood. Had it n<3t been for the affair at Lex- 
ington, it is probable that matters might have 
remained quiet for some time longer, and that 
the colonists would have wasted many more 
words of petition upon the ministry. Even after 
that battle, had the ministry expressed in strong 
terms their disapprobation of Gage's measure, 
and adopted a conciliatory tone, the war might 
have been then averted. But the affair of the 
17th June at once put a stop to any further halt- 
ing between two opinions. 

Again, that action was of primary importance 
from the influence which it exercised upon our 
fathers, who, unknown to themselves, had before 
them a war of protracted length, partaking largely 
of reverse and discouragement. They learned 
this day what they might do in the confidence 
that God was on their side, and that their cause 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



73 



was good. That work of a summer's night was 
worth its price to them. They lacked discipline, 
artillery, bayonets, powder and ball, food, and, — 
the greatest want of all, — they lacked the deli- 
cious draught of pure, cool water for their labor- 
worn and heat-exhausted frames. They found 
that desperation would supply the place of disci- 
pline ; that the stock of a musket, wielded with 
true nerves, would deal a blow as deadly as the 
thrust of a bayonet; and that a heavy stone 
might level an assailant as well as a charge of 
powder. As for food and water, the hunger they 
were compelled to bear unrelieved, and they 
cooled their brows only by the thick, heavy drops 
which poured before the sun. Yet it was their 
opening combat, and proudly did they bear away 
its laurels, even upon their backs, which the 
failure of ammunition and of reinforcements com- 
pelled them to turn to the enemy. Yes, they did 
show their backs once to those whose backs they 
had" already seen twice ; and if they retreated 
once, it was only that they might save their faces 
for later and bolder opportunities of confronting 
the foe. It was their opening combat, and it 
decided the spirit and the hope of all their subse- 
quent campaigns. They had freed themselves 
during the engagement from all that natural reluc- 
tance which they had heretofore felt in turning 
their offensive weapons against the breasts of 
former friends, yes, even of kinsmen. On that 
7 



74 BATTLE or BTJNKER HILL* 

eminence, the first bright image of Liberty, of a 
free native land, kindled the eyes of those who 
were expiring in their gore, and the image passed 
between the living and the dying to seal the cov- 
enant, that the hope of the one, or the fate of the 
other, should unite them here or hereafter. It 
was the report of that battle, which, transmitted 
by swift couriers over the length and breadth of 
the continent, would everywhere prepare the 
spirit to follow it up with determined resistance 
to every future act of aggression. How can we 
exaggerate the relative importance of this day's 
action ? Did it not in fact open the contest, 
dividing into two parties, not only those deter- 
mined for the ministry or the colony, but likewise 
all timid, hesitating, reluctant neutrals ? It was 
difficult after this to avoid taking sides. Did it 
not at once render all reconciliation impossible, 
till it should offer itself in company with justice 
and liberty ? Did it not echo the gathering cry 
which brought together our people from their 
farms and workshops, to learn the art of war, that 
terrible art, which grows more merciful only as it 
is the more skilfully pursued ? This day, then, 
needs no rhetoric to magnify it in our revolu- 
tionary annals. After its sun went down, the 
provincials parted with all fear, hesitation, and 
reluctance. They found that it was easier to 
fight; the awful roar of the death-dealing arms 
associated itself in their minds with all their 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 76 

wrongs, and all their hopes, and with the sweet 
word of liberty. The pen with which petitions 
were written had been found to be powerless : 
words of remonstrance left no impression upon 
the air. There was but one resource. From the 
village homes and farm-houses around, amid the 
encouraging exhortations, as well as the tearful 
prayers of their families, the yeomen took from 
their chimney-stacks the familiar and well-proved 
weapons of a life in the woods, and felt, for the 
first time, what it was to have a country, and 
resolved for the first time that they would save 
their country or be mourned by her. 

And if further evidence be needed in support 
of the high importance attached to this day's 
conflict, refer to the effect which the announce- 
ment of it produced in Great Britain, upon the 
ministry and the people. One fact painfully 
evident to the student of our revolutionary history, 
is, that the war was commenced by the ministry, 
and allowed by the people, under the grossest 
misapprehension of the character and courage of 
the inhabitants of this province. Parliament was 
in a state of perfect infatuation when it gave ear 
to the speeches that advised the measures of the 
ministry, and represented the enforcing of them 
as so easy a work. For though Parliament had 
been warned by all the local information of our 
former Governor, Pownall, by the philosophy of 
Burke, and the tender appeals of Lord Chatham, 



76 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

that conciliatory measures would be the only 
efficient measures, there was either stupidity, fol- 
ly or madness in the self-conceited persuasion, 
that a race of men who had left their native 
country to escape oppression, would consent to be 
oppressed in a new country, redeemed by them 
from a wilderness, made habitable by virtuous 
toil, and endeared as always free. The last 
three English governors of this province, and 
the ministry at home, have represented the Amer- 
ican people as wholly under the control of a few 
ambitious leaders, demagogues or revolutionists, 
who, by exciting speeches, spread enthusiasm 
among the multitude, cajoling and flattering them 
with the enticing word, — liberty. It was alleged 
in Parliament that the people would succumb, 
if their leaders could be silenced. This battle 
proved that a people who showed such a spirit, 
must be capable of originating some enthusiasm 
in themselves, as well as of being cajoled into it 
by others. They had been represented as cow- 
ards, who dared to fire a musket only at a long 
distance, and from behind a protection ; and the 
people of England had been promised that one 
regiment of the king's troops should sweep the 
provincials off the continent. But after this battle 
the probability of such a result was reduced to 
this simple rule of three : if so many of his 
Majesty's regiments were necessary to secure the 
square feet of ground occupied by Charlestown 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 77 

peninsula, how many would be needed to sweep 
the continent ? 

The people of England were instructed by this 
day's news to estimate the bravery, the union, 
the determined purpose of the colonists. It was 
greatly in favor of our cause, that the unpopu- 
larity of the war among the mercantile classes of 
England, should be increased by such a repre- 
sentation of its progress, as would induce the 
pride of the British to listen at last to prudence. 
While the ministry flattered the people with 
fables about the pusillanimity and poverty of the 
colonists, and called for new resources against 
them, promising that each demand should be the 
last, only the report of such poor success as at- 
tended their hostilities upon this peninsula, could 
open the eyes of the British nation to the hope- 
lessness of their measures. 

The account of the battle transmitted by Gen- 
eral Gage, accompanied, of course, by numerous 
private letters, was received in London, July 25th. 
The General estimated his loss at 226 killed, and 
828 wounded. The ministry were dismayed, and 
for a time kept back the official announcement 
from the Gazette. It was known, however, that 
government despatches had been received, and in 
order to draw forth their contents, some ingenious 
persons wrote from their imaginations what pur- 
ported to be an account of the battle, and pub- 
lished it in the newspapers. By this fictitious 
7# 



ll'Q- BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

Statement, the regulars were said to have been 
defeated with great slaughter. Thus the admin- 
istration were obliged to prepare their own state- 
ment for the Gazette, as soon as possible. Even 
with a favorable garb thrown around its announce- 
ment, the official account shocked and alarmed 
the people. They waited with the utmost anxiety 
for the representation which the provincials might 
give of the battle, and to hear the measures of 
the Congress. They changed their opinion of 
the colonists when they found that one square 
mile of our territory had cost them more than a 
thousand men. As the news of the engagement 
circulated in England, it called out popular ex- 
pressions which exhibited the general dissatisfac- 
tion wath the war. The official publications were 
made up from the accounts of Gage, Howe, and 
Burgoyne ; they were replied to, even in London, 
with cutting sarcasm. The report in London 
was, that General Gage was ordered not to haz- 
ard another engagement till he was reinforced, 
though it was doubted whether the provincials 
would leave this at his option; that he was 
ordered to depart from Boston, after burning it, 
and to fortify himself upon Rhode Island, whence 
he might make descents upon the coast ; and that 
1000 stand of arms and 1000 Highlanders had 
been sent to Quebec. So high did sympathy for 
the colonists rise in England, that, on the 23d of 
August, the king issued a proclamation against 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 79 

all in his realms who should aid, correspond with, 
or favor the rebels. It was found that the reve- 
nue, so unblushingly promised in Parliament, was 
to require a large outlay for its collection in the 
colonies. Instead of receiving taxes from hence, 
they were obliged to send regiments of their own 
subjects, with foreign mercenaries, and coals, 
fagots, vinegar, porter, hay, vegetables, sheep, 
oxen, horses, clothing, — to say nothing of muni- 
tions of war,— across 3000 miles of water, and 
even then, to anticipate, as the result proved, 
with good reason, that some of their richest trans- 
^jorts would fall into the hands of these reluctant 
tax-payers. Some of the Highlanders who were 
induced to enlist by the representations of recruit- 
ing sergeants, were told that they were to take 
possession of some vacant farms in this country, 
the owners of which had been driven into the 
interior. They even received certificates that 
when the rebellion here was subdued, each of 
them should have a clear title to two hundred 
acres of land for himself, and fifty acres in addi- 
tion for each member of his family. 

By a resolution of the Provincial Congress at 
Watertown, July 7th, the Committee of Safety 
prepared an account of the engagement on the 
17th June, to be transmitted to Great Britain, for 
he sake of counteracting the influence of any 
misrepresentations on the part of General Gage. 
The account was dated July 25, and sent to 



so BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

Arthur Lee, at London, who caused it to be pub- 
lished in the papers. But the sympathies and 
complaints of the English people were not left to 
be excited merely by documents sent from this 
side of the water, and answered by well-freighted 
transports from Britain. The people were made 
to witness some melancholy results of the battle, 
Avhich brought its pictures of sorrow to their own 
doors. On September 14th, a transport, (the 
Charming Nancy,) arrived at Plymouth, having 
left Boston, August 20th. On board were General 
Gage's lady, and 170 sick and wounded officers and 
soldiers, with 60 widows and children of the slain. 
The stench of the vessel was intolerable, but the 
condition of its human cargo was awful. Maimed 
and helpless, ragged and pined with sickness, — 
many of them hundreds of miles from their home 
in Ireland, — the sufferers, as they were landed 
and begged for charity in the streets, presented a 
most deplorable and wretched tale of the unnatural 
strife. Two more vessels, with similar cargoes, 
which left Boston at the same time, were daily 
expected, and more were on their way. Thus 
was Boston relieved of a part of its helpless vic- 
tims, and thus were the people of England most 
piteously besought to spare the blood of their own 
kinsfolk, rather than to make so fearful a sacrifice 
to national pride, to lust of dominion, and to the 
wealth expected from the taxation of the colonies. 
Nor did the conduct of the battle, on the part 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 81 

of the British generals, escape severe scrutiny 
and censure. Plans were stated, and alternatives 
imagined, by vi^hich they might have secured a 
nearly bloodless victory. These complaints were 
made with good reason. A ship of war, some 
floating batteries, or the Cymetry transport, which 
drew but little water, might have been towed into 
Mystic river, and lying water-borne at low tide, 
(for during the heat of the strife the water was at 
ebb,) would have been within musket-shot of our 
left flank, and have rendered the rail fence use- 
less. The regulars might have landed in the 
rear of the provincials, and thus have surrounded 
them, have incapacitated the breastwork, cut off 
a retreat, and occupied Banker's Hill. Or, sup- 
posing it was most in accordance with military 
rule and prudence that they should have landed 
as they did, in front, they should not have ad- 
vanced in an extended line, firing at intervals, 
but, formed into columns, should have rushed 
forward, reserving their fire for the redoubt, and 
charging with the bayonet. Their first two 
attacks were disastrous to themselves, but harm- 
less to the provincials. The simple truth seems 
to be, that the regular officers had a most despi- 
cable opinion of the provincials, and thought that 
the smell of powder, the glancing of bright bay- 
onets, and a well deployed line, would frighten 
them into flight. They were grievously mistaken. 
But, after all, when the dear-won victory was 



82 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

theirs, why did they not pursue to Cambridge, 
under cover of their own ships, especially as, 
towards and after the close of the battle, Charles- 
town was filled with British troops who were 
hurrying over from Boston ? 

Another result attending the news of the battle 
in England, was the immediate recall of General 
Gage. Just before the arrival of the news, de- 
spatches had been prepared, yet not transmitted 
to him, in which his future operations were 
directed. But these despatches, when sent, were 
accompanied by another, in which he was directed 
to give them to General Howe, who was to suc- 
ceed him in the command, and in which he was 
advised that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he 
should immediately return to give information 
and counsel at home. It is likewise a remark- 
able, but a very manifest fact, that the disastrous 
character of this battle, the desperate courage of 
the provincials, and the hopeless aspect Avhich 
the designs of the ministry began in consequence 
to wear, completely unmanned General Howe, 
deprived him of all energy in the conduct of the 
war, and entailed upon him disgrace. 

Such were the effects produced by this battle 
upon our enemies. They might be indefinitely 
enlarged upon, traced out in British petitions and 
addresses to the throne, in public opposition 
meetings held throughout the kingdom, in the 
reluctance of the soldiers to enlist in that cause, 



BATTLE OF BUNKBE HILLc B6 

and the high bounty promised to their services, 
and especially in the increasing number of the 
avowed and secret friends of the colonies in 
England. 

While such were the results of the battle on 
the other side of the water, its effects upon our 
own army and cause contribute to magnify its 
importance. We might trace out the influence of 
that battle through the whole war, might refer 
to the spirit and determination and self-respect 
which it infused into the provincials. We might 
find in every subsequent engagement of the war 
some individuals who had learned their military 
elements on June 17th. But we will confine our- 
selves to a statement of its immediate results which 
were favorable to our cause. Many of our offi- 
cers had received their commissions from Great 
Britain, and were in the receipt of half-pay at the 
time of the battle, which they of course resigned. 

The British took possession of, and strongly 
fortified Bunker and Breed's Hills, and posted 
their advanced guards upon the Neck. This 
division of their forces between the two penin- 
sulas was in one point of view advantageous to 
them, as it enlarged their quarters at a season of 
the year when Boston, crowded as it was, and 
made unwholesome by impure air, seemed as one 
large hospital. The cool heights of Charlestown 
were a refreshing refuge ; yet they were com- 
pelled to a great increase of their labor in defend- 



84 BATTtLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

ing their works against an enemy so near to them, 
who insulted and vexed them, and made them 
feel the degradation of their position. During the 
ensuing inclement winter, the troops in Charles- 
town were obliged to live in tents, and were 
exposed to great sufferings and to driving snow- 
storms. Neither did the possession of Charles- 
town give the enemy any facility in obtaining 
supplies of fresh provisions, in which the country 
abounded, but of which they had enjoyed little, if 
any, after the battle of Lexington. In this re- 
spect, their condition was trying in the extreme. 
They could procure no fresh meat, vegetables, 
milk, or fuel, save what came in by water. The 
provincials took the live stock and the hay off the 
harbor islands, and intercepted many of the ves- 
sels entering with supplies. In a letter from an 
officer in Boston to a gentleman in London, dated 
July 25th, the writer says, they felt themselves 
worse off than the rebels ; as to numbers, like a 
few children in a large crowd; that the provin- 
cials daily grew more bold, menacing insolently, 
and leading the regulars to fear that, when the 
short nights came, the threats would be executed. 
He adds, " They know our situation as well as 
we do ourselves, from the villains that are left in 
town, who acquaint them with all our proceed- 
ings, making signals by night with gunpowder, 
and at day, out of the church steeples. About 
three weeks asro, three fellows were taken out of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 85 

one of the latter, who confessed that he had been 
so employed for seven days. Another was caught 
last week swimming over to the rebels, with one 
of their general's passes in his pocket. He will 
be hanged in a day or two." The writer adds 
other instances of the boldness of the rebels, in 
beating in the advanced guard on the British 
Hues at Roxbury and destroying the guard-house, 
and in the pillaging and destruction of the light- 
house by some yankees who landed from boats, 
while a British ship of war lay becalmed within 
a mile. 

And what a cheering spectacle was set before 
the eyes of our fathers when the American army, 
intrenching upon all the beautiful and elevated 
hills which bound the semicircle around, con- 
fined their enemy to these two peninsulas. There 
was no concealing the fact that the ministerial 
troops felt deeply the degradation of their situ- 
ation, and were dispirited by it to a degree that 
weakened their moral and physical energies 
through the whole war. From the best infor- 
mation that Washington, on assuming his coin- 
mand, July 3d, could obtain, he rated the number 
of the enemy at 11,500, while the provincials 
numbered 16,000 to 17,000. The sentries of the 
opposing forces stationed upon Charlestown Neck 
were near enough to converse together. We are 
forcibly reminded of that admirable trait in the 
character of Washington, — a scrupulous attention 
8 



S8 BAlTLE OP BUNltER HILIa 

to minutise,— as well as of the spirit of patriotism 
which sustained us under the war, by several of 
the " orders " issued by our General under these 
circumstances. He expressly forbade that any 
post of peculiar responsibility, such as that of 
sentry or guard at the advanced lines upon Rox- 
bury or Charlestown Necks, should be committed 
to any other than a native of this country, wh» 
had a wife and family in it, and was known to be 
attached to its interests. " This order is to be 
considered as a standing one, and the officers are 
to pay obedience to it at their peril." 

The contrast between the health and the food 
of the regulars and of the provincials was ex- 
tremely tantalizing. Hand-bills were printed at 
Cambridge, and sent on a favorable wind across 
the lines into the British camp. On one of 
these, an address to the British soldiers bears the 
following contrasted bills of fare, in the two 
camps : — 



Prospect Hill. 

I. Seven dollars a month. 
II. Fresh provisions and in 

plenty. 
UI. Health. 
IV. Freedom, ease, affluence, 

and a good farm. 

In reviewing the whole struggle whose opening 
contest we have thus commemorated, we have a 
duty, to perform as patriots and as Christians ; let 



Bunker's Hill. 

I. Threepence a day. 
II. Rotten Salt Pork. 

III. The Scur^y. 

IV. Slavtery, beggary, and 

want. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 87 

US hope that there be no discord in our senti- 
ments or purposes as we apply to ourselves those 
two epithets. As patriots we would vindicate our 
country, but as Christians we must regret the 
war, the civil strife, the bloody conflict, so utterly 
irreconcilable with the spirit and precepts of our 
religion. 



DOCUMENTS 

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER's HILL. 



PART I. 
ENGLISH DOCUMENTS. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE ORDERLY BOOK OF GENERAL 
HOWE. 

The following extracts embrace all that has 
reference to the engagement : 

" General morning orders, Saturday, June 17, 
1775. The companies of the 35th and 49th, that 
are arrived, to land as soon as the transports can 
get to the wharf, and to encamp on the ground 
marked out for them on the common. 

" Captain Handheld is appointed to act as assist- 
ant to the Deputy Quartermaster General, and is 
to be obeyed as such. 

"The ten eldest companies of grenadiers, and 
the ten eldest companies of light infantry, (exclu- 
sive of those of the regiments lately landed,) the 
5th and 3Sth regiments, to parade at half after 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 89 

eleven o'clock, with their arms, amunition, blan- 
kets, and the provisions ordered to be booked this 
morning". They will march by files to the Long 
Wharf. 

" The 43d and 52d regiments, with the remain- 
ing companies of light infantry and grenadiers, to 
parade at the same time, with the same directions, 
and march to the North Battery. The 47th regi- 
ment and the 1st battalion of marines will also 
march, as above directed, to the North Battery, 
after the rest are embarked, and be ready to em- 
bark there when ordered. 

" The rest of the troops will be kept in readi- 
ness to march at a moment's warning. 

" 1 subaltern, 1 Serjeant, 1 corporal, 1 drummer 
and 20 privates, to be left by each corps for the 
security of their respective encampments. 

" Any man who shall quit his rank, on any 
pretence, or shall dare to plunder or pillage, will 
be executed without mercy. 

" The pioneers of the army to parade immedi- 
ately, and march to the South Battery, where 
they will obey such orders as they will receive 
from Lieut. Col. Cleveland . 

" The light dragoons, mounted, to be sent im- 
mediately to the lines, where they will attend and 
obey the orders of the officer commanding there. 

" Two more to be sent in like manner to head 
quarters. 

'* Signals for the boats, in divisions, moving to 



90 BATTLE OF SUNKER HILL. 

the attack on the rebels, entrenched on the Heights 
of Charlestown; 

June 17, 1775, (viz.) 

Blue flag, . To advance. 

Yellow do To lay on oars. 

Red do To land. 

"Heights of Charlestown, June 18th, at nine 

o'clock, morning. — General Howe's Orders. 

" The troops will encamp as soon as the equi- 
page can be brought up. 

" Tents and provisions may be expected when 
the tide admits of transporting them to this side. 

^' The corps to take the duty at the entrenchment 
near Charlestown Neck alternately. The whole 
(those on the last mentioned duty excepted;) to 
furnish the third of their numbers for work, with 
officers and non-commissioned officers in propor- 
tion, and to be relieved every four hours. 

" The parties for work to carry their arms, and 
lodge them securely while on that duty. 

" General Howe expects that all officers will 
exert themselves to prevent the men from strag- 
gling, quitting their companies or platoons, and, 
on pain of death no man to be guilty of the shame- 
ful and infamous practice of pillaging in the 
deserted houses. 

" When men are sent for water, not less than 
twelve, with a non-commissioned officer, to be 
sent on that duty. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 91 

"the 47th regiment to continue at the post 
they now occupy. 

" The soldiers are by no means to cut down 
trees, unless ordered. 

" General Howe hopes the troops will in every 
instance show an attention to discipline and reg- 
ularity on this ground, equal to the bravery and 
intrepidity, he, with the greatest satisfaction, ob- 
served they displayed so remarkably yesterday. 
He takes this opportunity of expressing his public 
testimony of the gallantry and good conduct of 
the officers under his command during the action, 
to which he in a great measure ascribes the suc- 
cess of the day. He considers particularly in this 
light the distinguished efforts of the Generals 
Clinton and Pigot. 

" The corps of light infantry will relieve the 
grenadiers at the advanced entrenchment, this 
evening at seven. 

" When the 52d regiment encamp, an officer 
and twenty men of that corps will remain at the 
post they now occupy. 

" As soon as the ground is marked out for the 
encampment, the several corps will immediately 
make necessary houses." 

" General Orders — Head Quarters. 
Boston, 19th June, 1775. 
" The Commander-in-Chief returns his most 
grateful thanks te Major General Howe, for the 



92 BATTLE OF BtTNKER HILL. 

extraordinary exertion of his military abilities on 
the 17th instant. He returns his thanks also to 
Major General Clinton, and Brigadier General 
Pigot, for the share they took in the success of the 
day, as well as to Lieut. Colonels Nesbitt, Aber- 
crombie. Gunning and Clarke, Majors Butler, 
Williams, Bruce, Tupper, Spendlove, Smelt and 
Mitchel, and the rest of the officers and soldiers, 
who, by remarkable efforts of courage and gal- 
lantry, overcame every disadvantage, and drove 
the rebels from their redoubt and strong holds on 
the Heights of Charlestown, and gained a com- 
pleat victory. 

"June 27, 1775. 
" The preservation of the few houses left in 
Charlestown (as much as possible) unimpaired, 
being an important object, any of the soldiers 
detected in future in attempting shamefully to 
purloin any part of these buildings, will assu- 
redly be punished most severely. The General 
considers such instances of devastation and irreg- 
ularity a disgrace to discipline." 



Extract of a letter from General Gage to Lord 
Dartmouth : 

Boston, June 25, 1775. 

" The success, of which I send your lordship 

an account by the present opportunity, was very 

necessary in our present situation, and I wish 

most sincerely that it had not cost us so dear. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 93 

The number of killed and wounded is greater 
than our forces can afford to lose. The officers, 
who were obliged to exert themselves, have suf- 
fered very much, and we have lost some extremely 
good officers. The trials we have had, show the 
rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have 
supposed them to be ; and I find it owing to a 
military spirit, encouraged among them for a few 
years pa&t, joined with an uncommon degree of 
zeal and enthusiasm, that they are otherwise. 
When they find cover they make a good stand ; 
and the country, naturally strong, aflfords it to 
them, and they are taught to assist its natural 
strength by art, for they entrench and raise bat- 
teries. They have fortified all the heights and 
passes around this town, from Dorchester to Med- 
ford or Mystick, and it is not impossible for them 
to annoy the Tovm. 

" Your lordship will perceive that the conquest 
of this country is not easy, and can be effected 
only by time and perseverance, and strong armies 
attacking it in various quarters, and dividing their 
forces. Confining your operations on this side 
only is attacking in the strongest part, and you 
have to cope with vast numbers. It might natu- 
rally be supposed, that troops of the nature of the 
rebel army would return home after such a check 
as they had got ; and I hear many wanted to go 
off, but care has been taken to prevent it; for any 
man that returns home without a pass, is immedi- 



94 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

ately seized and sent back to his regiment. In 
all their wars against the French, they never 
showed so much conduct, attention and perseve- 
rance as they do now. I think it my duty to let 
your lordship know the true situation of affairs, 
that administration may take measures accord- 
ingly. 

" The people's minds are kept so much heated 
and inflamed, that they are always ripe for every- 
thing that is extravagant. Truth is kept from 
them, and they are too full of prejudices to believe 
it, if laid before . them ; and so blind and bigoted, 
that they cannot see they have exchanged liberty 
for tyranny. No people were ever governed more 
absolutely than those of the American Provinces 
now are, and no reason can be given for their 
submission, but that it is a tyranny they have 
erected themselves, as they believe, to avoid great- 
er evils. 



General Gage to the Earl of Dartmouth. [From 
the London Gazette.] 

" Whitehall, July 25, 1775. 
" This morning arrived Captain Chadds, of His 
Majesty's ship Cerberus, with the following letter 
from the Hon. Lieut. General Gage, to the Earl 
of Dartmouth, one of His Majesty's principal 
Secretaries of State." 



BAtTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 95 

" Copy of a letter from the Hon. Lieut.. General 

Gage, to the Earl of Dartmouth^ dated Boston^ 

June 25, 1775, 

" My Lord : I am to acquaint your lordship of 
ail action that happened on the 17th instant, 
between his Majesty's troops and a body of the 
rebel forces. 

" An alarm was given at break of day on the 
17th instant, by a firing from the Lively, ship of 
war; and advice was soon afterwards received, 
that the rebels had broke ground, and were raising 
a battery on the heights of the peninsula of 
Charlestown, against the Town of Boston. They 
were plainly seen at work, and in a few hours a 
battery of six guns played upon their works. 
Preparations were instantly made for landing a 
body of men to drive them off, and ten companies 
of grenadiers and ten of light infantry, with the 
fifth, thirty-eighth, forty-third and fifty-second bat- 
talions made a third line. The rebels upon the 
Heights were perceived to be in great force, and 
strongly posted — a redoubt, thrown up on the 16th, 
at night, with other works, full of men, defended 
with cannon, and a large body posted in the hou- 
ses in Charlestown, covered their right flank, and 
their centre and left were covered by a breastwork, 
part of it cannon proof, which reached from the 
left of the redoubt, to the Mystic or Medford river. 

" This appearance of the rebels' strength, and 
the large columns seen pouring in to their assist- 



96 BATTLE OF BUNKER HlLL. 

ance, occasioned an application for the troops to 
be reinforced with some companies of light infan- 
try and grenadiers, the forty-seventh battalion, 
and the first battalion of marines ; the whole, when 
in conjunction, making a body of something aboye 
two thousand men. These troops advanced, formed 
in two lines, and the attack began by a sharp 
cannonade from our field pieces and howitzers ; the 
lines advancing slowly, and frequently halting to 
give time for the artillery to fire. The light infan- 
try was directed to force the left point of the 
breastwork, to take the rebel line in flank, and the 
grenadiers to attack in front, supported by the fifth 
and fifty-second battalions. These orders were 
executed with perseverance, under a heavy fire 
from the vast numbers of the rebels ; and not- 
withstanding various impediments before the troops 
could reach the works, (and though the left, under 
Brigadier General Pigot, who engaged also with 
the rebels at Charlestown, which at a critical mo- 
ment was set on fire,) the Brigadier pursued his 
point, and carried the redoubt. The rebels were 
then forced from other strong holds, and pursued 
till they were drove clear off the peninsula, leaving 
five pieces of cannon behind them. 

" The loss the rebels sustained must have been 
considerable, from the great numbers they carried 
off during the time of the action, and buried in 
holes, since discovered, exclusive of what they 
suffered by the shipping and boats. Near one 
hundred were buried the next day after, and 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 97 

thirty found wounded in the field, three of whom 
are since dead. 

" I enclose your lordship a return of the killed 
and wounded of His Majesty's troops. 

" This action has shown the superiority of the 
King's troops, who, under every disadvantage, 
attacked and defeated above three times their 
number, strongly posted, and covered by breast- 
works. 

" The conduct of Major General Howe was 
conspicuous on this occasion, and his example 
spirited the troops, in which Major General Clin- 
ton assisted, who followed the reinforcement. 
And in justice to Brigadier General Pigot, I am 
to add, that the success of the day must, in a 
great measure, be attributed to his firmness and 
gallantry. 

" Lieutenant Colonels Nesbit, Abercrombie, 
Clarke ; Majors Butler, Williams, Bruce, Spend- 
love, Smelt, Mitchell, Pitcairn, and Short, ex- 
erted themselves remarkably; and the valor of 
the British officers and soldiers in general was at 
no time more conspicuous than in this action. 
" I have the honor to be, &;c., 

"Thomas Gage." 

[Then follows the return with the names of 
the officers, non-commissioned officers, and pri- 
vates, of the different corps, killed and wounded : 
jsubjoined is the ensuing summary.] 
9 



98: BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" Total, — one Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, 
seven Captains, nine Lieutenants, fifteen Ser- 
geants, one Drummer, one hundred and ninety- 
one rank and file, killed ; three Majors, twenty- 
seven Captains, thirty-two Lieutenants, eight 
Ensigns, twenty Sergeants, twelve Drummers, 
seven hundred and six rank and file, wounded." 

[The above summary was not strictly accurate, 
nor complete. Of course, very many of the 
wounded died soon after this account was written. 
The whole number of the killed and wounded 
was afterwards estimated by the British at 1054. 
Some of their men were missing after the battle, 
who were supposed to have deserted to the 
Americans.] 



" Observations on the government account of the 
late action near Charlestown." [From the Op- 
position journals.] 

" London, August 1, 1775. 

" There are two sorts of persons who always 
persevere uniformly, and without shame, in one 
unvaried line of conduct, regardless of the con- 
tempt and detestation of mankind. The sorts I 
mean are the thorough virtuous, and the thorough 
scoundrel. 

" To one of these classes most evidently belong 
the ministers, who settled the account which they 
have given us in last Tuesday's Gazette. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 99 

" The action near Boston, happened on the 
* 17th of June,' yet General Gage's letter is dated 
eight days after, on the ' 25th of June.' 

" By this letter it appears that it has cost one 
thousand and sixty-four of the ^oops, killed and 
wounded, to destroy a redoubt thrown up only 
the overnight, i. e., on the 16th of June. 

" The loss of the provincials, the letter says, 
' must have been considerable ;' yet eight days 
after the action, the General, though completely 
victorious, can tell us only of ' one hundred ' 
buried, and ' thirty' wounded. 

" But ' they had carried off great numbers dur- 
ing the time of the action.' Did they so ? That is 
no great sign of flight, confusion, and defeat. 

" But ' they buried them in holes.' Really ! 
why, are our soldiers buried in the air ? 

" But ' the King's troops were under every 
disadvantage.' So truly it seems; for in the 
same letter we are told ' that they had a propor- 
tion of field artillery, and landed on the peninsula 
without opposition, and formed as soon as landed, 
under the protection of some ships of war, armed 
vessels, and boats, by whose fire the rebels were 
kept within their works.' 

" But ' this action has shown the superiority of 
the King's troops.' Has it, indeed ? How? Why 
they (with a proportion of field artillery, and with 
the assistance of ships, armed vessels, and boats, 
and with the encouragement of certain and speedy 



100 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

reinforcements, if necessary,) attacked and de- 
feated ' above three times their own numbers.' 
What, three times their own numbers? Of 
whom, pray? Of French or Spanish regu- 
lars ? No, of the Americans. Of the Americans ! 
What, of those dastardly, hjrpocritical cowards, 
who, (Lord Sandwich knows,) do not feel bold 
enough to dare to look a soldier in the face ! Of 
those undisciplined and spiritless Yankees, who 
were to be driven from one end of the continent 
Xo the other, with a single regiment ! What, of 
those skulking assassins, who can only fire at a 
distance, from behind stone walls and hedges ! 
Good God! Was it necessary to defeat these 
fellows, that the troops should be ' spirited ' by 
the example of General Howe, assisted by Gen- 
eral Clinton! And can it be, that Lieutenant 
Colonels Nesbit, Abercrombie, and Clarke ; Ma- 
jors Butler, Williams, Bruce, Spendlove, Smelt, 
Mitchell, Pitcairn, and Short, should be forced to 
exert themselves remarkably, against such pol- 
troons ! Is it possible that this could be an 
affair in which ' the valor of the British officers 
and soldiers, in general, was as conspicuous as at 
any time whatever,' and notwithstanding all this, 
that the success, in a great measure, should be 
attributed to the firmness and gallantry of Gen- 
eral Pigot ! 

" Good God ! is it come to this at last ? Can 
the regulars, with all these exertions, only defeat 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 101 

three times their own number of undisciplined 
cowards ? and that, too, at the expense of one 
thousand and sixty-four, (that is, more than one- 
half,) killed and wounded, out of something above 
two thousand ? 

"Is every redoubt which the Americans can 
throw up in a short summer night, to be demol- 
ished at this expense ? Hoav many such victories 
can we bear? 

" Alas ! When I read in the General's letter 
the regular and formidable preparations for attack; 
* ten companies of grenadiers, ten of light infantry, 
with the fifth, thirty-eighth, forty-third, and fifty- 
second battalions, with a proportion of field artil- 
lery, under the command of Major General Howe 
and Brigadier General Pigot;' and these ' landed 
on the peninsula under the protection of ships of 
war, armed vessels, and boats,' and their dreadful 
fire ; when I had read this, I concluded that the 
next lines would inform us of the immediate and 
precipitate flight of the Yankees. Judge, then, 
of my surprise when I read that (instead of being 
at all dismayed or struck with the Sandwich 
panic,) ' large columns ' of these cowards ' were 
seen pouring in to their assistance.' 

" Well, but then comes ' an application for the 
troops to be reinforced with some companies of 
light infantry and grenadiers, the forty-seventh 
battalion, and the first battalion of marines.' 
They will certainly, thought I, scamper away 
9# 



102 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

now. Alas ! no. They stay and fight. And to 
complete my astonishment, I cannot find in Gen- 
eral Gage's letter, where our troops were when he 
wrote, nor what became of them after the action ; 
whether they are returned to Boston, or have 
ventured to encamp without the town; what 
prisoners they have taken ; what advantages (be- 
sides five pieces of cannon,) result from this 
bloody action ; whether the war is now at an 
end, or what the troops propose to do next. 

" To be serious, I am, for my own part, con- 
vinced that the event of this execrable dragooning 
is decided ; and that before mnter, there will not 
be a single soldier of Lord Bute's and Lord 
Mansfield's mercenary troops left upon the conti- 
nent of America. 

" With what consolation those noble lords will 
wipe away the tears of the widow and orphans, 
(as well English as American,) which these 
bloody Stuart measures have occasioned, I can- 
not tell ; but I know that my eyes will gush out 
with joy when they see the authors of our domes- 
tic miseries receive (what I believe they will soon 
receive) their just reward." 

Further observations. " I have the highest 
idea of General Howe's military character, yet 
cannot help wondering how he came to sufTer 
the provincials to escape, and even carry off their 
dead, when drove from their strong lines ; for 
1 conceive it very easy to have destroyed the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 103 

whole body, after dislodging them so suddenly 
from their intrenchments, if Mr. Gage is suffered 
to tell the story right. I can't help observing, 
also, that I never before heard of so many men, 
in proportion to the number, being killed and 
wounded from redoubts made in four hours, and 
from six pieces of cannon only, in those redoubts, 
to oppose above one hundred pieces. I therefore 
suspect that the disagreeable scene is not unfolded. 
" One or both of the following conclusions 
must be drawn from this narration : the Ameri- 
cans are either the cleverest fellows in the world 
at making strong lines in three or four hours, or 
the most desperate enemy in defending them; 
for, by Mr. Gage's account, they killed and 
wounded near half his army in marching up 
about three hundred yards under a complete train 
of artillery, and all the fire of the navy to cover 
them ; which, by this account, is a new instance 
of successful defence from one night's labor. 
Hah, Gad ! by this rule, the Americans will put 
our whole army into the grave or hospitals in 
three or four nights' work, and an hour's fire in 
each morning. I do not remember precisely, but 
am apt to believe that there were not so many 
officers killed and wounded at the battle of Min- 
den, though the English regiments sustained the 
force of the whole French army for a consider- 
able time. A six-gun battery, the product! m of a 
night's digging, had there been ten thousan I men 



104 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

to protect it, could never have made such havoc 
agamst a vast train of artillery, and the irresist* 
ible fire of our ships, which would sweep all 
before them, from every acre of that peninsula. 
But the true story is not told. A Methodist sec- 
retary and a Scotch printer can do more than 
our people ; they pay off the sins of omission and 
commission of the day, by a long prayer at night, 
and thus settle accounts between God and the 
people in an hour's devotion." 



" London, August 8, 1775, 
" The account of the late action between the 
Americans and the troops of General Gage, is 
one of the most evasive and unsatisfactory that 
ever yet obtruded on the public, even through the 
channel of a ministerial paper; and yet it is 
every way worthy of the victory which it affects 
to describe. The General sent out ' something 
above two thousand men,' of whom, something 
above half, (i. e., 1053,) are either killed or 
wounded. The General, however, takes care 
not to mention how many hours were employed 
in the prosecution of this hopeful business, but, 
nevertheless, pretends to tell us that great num- 
bers of the enemy were destroyed ; and seems to 
have employed his soldiers in digging up such as 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 105 

were buried in holes, that he might have power 
to ascertain the value of his conquest. 

" With all the vanity of a military man he 
praises the conduct of the officers under his com- 
mand ; but prudently omits to say whether any 
such advantage has been gained as may make 
up for the loss of one Lieutenant Colonel, two 
Majors, seven Captains, nine Lieutenants, fif- 
teen Sergeants, one Drummer, one hundred and 
ninety-one rank and file, killed ; and three Ma- 
jors, twenty-seven Captains, thirty-two Lieuten- 
ants, eight Ensigns, forty Sergeants, twelve 
Drummers, and seven hundred and six rank and 
file, wounded, and unfit for service. In short, if, 
every time the General sends out his brace of 
thousands, the one half of them shall either drop 
or be rendered useless, we shall soon see an 
end to the war in America, but it cannot be ex- 
pected to terminate in our own favor. 

" The ministry received this account several 
days before it was announced, but were either 
unable or unwilling to cook it up for the public, 
till after their despatches had been sent away. 
The printer may rely on this assurance from one 
whose private letters will always reach him 
unexamined and uncastrated by the spies of 
government. General Gage is but too well con- 
vinced that such another victory would oblige 
him to re-embark his troops and sail immediately 



106 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

for England, without attempting any further re- 
duction of the Americans. 

" The Captain who brought these despatches 
from Boston, was commanded to declare he had 
great news of the defeat of the Americans, though 
he had assured many people, in the towns through 
which he passed on his way to London, that he 
was afraid the accounts he brought would throw 
the whole nation into disorder, and direct its ven-y 
geance on the advisers of hostile measures in 
America." 

General Burgoyne to Lord Stanley : 

" Boston, June 25, 1775. 
" Boston IS a peninsula, joined to the main land 
only by a narrow neck, which, on the first trou- 
bles, General Gage fortified ; arms of the sea and 
the harbor surround the rest on the other side. 
On one of these arms, to the north, is Charles- 
town; or rather was, for it is now rubbish; and 
over it is a large hill, which is also (like Boston) 
a peninsula. To the south of the town is a still 
larger slope of ground, containing three hills, 
joining also to the main by a tongue of land, and 
called Dorchester Neck. The Heights, as above 
described, both north and south, (in the soldier's 
phrase,) command the town ; that is, give an 
opportunity of erecting batteries above any that 
you can make against them, and consequently 
are much more advantageous. It was absolutely 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 107 

necessary we should make ourselves masters of 
these Heights, and we proposed to begin with 
Dorchester ; because, from the particular situation 
of batteries and shipping, (too long to describe, and 
unintelligible to you if I did,) it would evidently be 
effected without any considerable loss. Every- 
thing was accordingly disposed ; my two col- 
leagues and myself (who, by the by, have never 
differed in one jot of military sentiment) had, in 
concert with General Gage, formed the plan. 
Howe was to land the transports on the point; 
Clinton in the centre, and I was to cannonade 
from the causeway or the Neck ; each to take 
advantage of circumstances. The operations must 
have been very easy. This was to have been exe- 
cuted on the eighteenth. On the seventeenth, 
at dawn of day, we found the enemy had pushed 
intrenchments with great diligence during the 
night, on the Heights of Charlestown, and we 
evidently saw that every hour gave them fresh 
strength. It therefore became necessary to alter 
our plan, and attack on that side. Howe, as 
second in command, was detached with about two 
thousand men, and landed on the outward side of 
the peninsula, covered with shipping and without 
opposition; he was to advance from thence up 
the hill, which was over Charlestown, where the 
strength of the enemy lay; lie had under him 
Brigadier General Pigot. Clinton and myself 
took our stand (for we had not any fixed post) in 



108 BATTLE OF BUN^KER KILL, 

a large battery directly opposite to Charlestown, 
and commanded it, and also reaching the heights 
above it, and thereby facilitating Howe's attack. 
Howe's disposition was exceedingly soldier-like ; 
in my opinion it was perfect. As his first arm 
advanced up the hill they met with a thousand 
impediments from strong fences, and were much 
exposed. They were also exceedingly hurt by 
musketry from Charlestown, though Clinton and 
I did not perceive it till Howe sent us word by a 
boat, and desired us to set fire to the town, which 
was immediately done ; we threw a parcel of 
shells, and the whole was instantly in flames. 
Our battery afterwards kept an incessant fire on 
the Heights ; it was seconded by a number of 
frigates, floating batteries, and one ship-of-the-line. 
And now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war 
that can be conceived : if we look to the Heights, 
Howe's corps ascending the hill, and in the face 
of intrenchments, and in a very disadvantageous 
ground, was much engaged ; to the left, the enemy 
pouring in fresh troops by thousands, over the 
land and the arm of the sea, our ships and float- 
ing batteries cannonading them; straight before 
us a large and noble town in one great blaze — 
the church steeples being timber, were great pyra- 
mids of fire above the rest ; behind us, the church 
steeples and heights of our own camp, covered 
with spectators of the rest of our army, which 
was engaged ; the hills round the country covered 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 109 

with spectators, the enemy all in anxious suspense, 
the roar of cannon, mortars and musketry, the 
crash of churches, ships upon the stocks, and 
whole streets falling together, to fill the ear ; the 
storm of the redoubts, with the objects above 
described, to fill the eye ; and the reflection that, 
perhaps, a defeat was a final loss to the British 
Empire in America, to fill the mind; made the 
whole a picture and a complication of horror and 
importance beyond anything that ever came to 
my lot to be witness to. I much lament Tom's 
[the Honorable Thomas Stanley, Esquire, nephew 
to General Burgoyne, and brother to Lord Stanley, 
a volunteer in the army] absence ; it was a sight 
for a young soldier that the longest service may 
not furnish again ; and had he been with me, he 
would likewise have been out of danger; for, 
except two cannon balls that went a hundred 
yards over our heads, we were not in any part of 
the direction of the enemy's shot. A moment of 
the day was critical ; Howe's left were staggered ; 
two battalions had been sent to reinforce them, 
but we perceived them on the beach, seeming in 
embarrassment what way to march. Clinton, 
then, next for business, took the part, without wait- 
ing for orders, to throw himself into a boat to 
head them ; he arrived in time to be of service ; 
the day ended with glory, and the success was 
most important, considering the ascendency it 
gave the regular troops ; but the loss was uncom- 
10 



110 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

mon in officers for the numbers engaged. Howe 
was untouched, but his aid-de-camp, Sherwin^ 
was killed ; Jordan, a friend of Howe's, v/ho came 
engage le de c(Bur, to see the campaign, (a ship- 
mate of ours on board the Cerberus, and who 
acted as aid-de-camp,) is badly wounded. Pigot 
was unhurt, but he behaved like a hero. You 
will see the list of the loss. Poor Colonel Aber- 
crombie, who commanded the grenadiers, died 
yesterday of his wounds. Captain Addison, our 
poor old friend, who arrived but the day before, 
and was to have dined with me on the day of the 
action, was also killed ; his son was upon the field 
at the same time. Major Mitchell is but very 
slightly hurt ; he is out already. Young Chet- 
wynd's wound is also slight. Lord Percy's regi- 
ment has suffered the most, and behaved the best ; 
his lordship himself was not in the action. Lord 
Rowden behaved to a charm ; his name is estab- 
lished for life." 

[Observations on the above, in the Opposition 

paper, addressed] 
" To General Burgoyne : 

" Sir : In reading the newspapers, I find an 
extract of a letter, which it is said you wrote a few 
days after the battle of Charlestown, to a noble 
Lord in England ; and I take notice you close your 
narration of that important day's work, by saying, 
' the day ended with glory.' 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. Ill 

" As I am totally at a loss to know what part 
of the day's conduct was crowned with so much 
' glory ' on your part, permit me, sir, to inquire 
whether it was such a ' glorious ' achievement, 
for upwards of two thousand regular disciplined 
troops, being the flower of the British army, 
headed by the most approved and experienced 
generals, with part of the train of artillery, sup- 
ported and covered with one ship-of-the-line, a 
number of frigates and floating batteries, and 9, 
large battery on Copp's Hill, in which General 
Clinton and you took your stand, and which com- 
manded the town, to dislodge a much inferior 
number of American militia, from a slender de- 
fence which they had but four hours to prepare, for 
it was twelve o'clock before either spade or pick- 
axe entered the ground, and the Lively, ship-of- 
war, fired upon them at four next morning, and sooiji 
after the battery above mentioned began to play ? 

" Was it, indeed, such a * glorious ' action, with 
all this tremendous apparatus of war, and under all 
these advantageous circumstances, in the space of 
twelve hours to kill seventy-seven, and wound two 
hundred and seventy-eigb^t Americans, (twenty- 
eight of whom were captivated,) and take five 
small pieces of cannon, which they had not time 
to place ? Nor was all this effected till they had 
sustained your fire from four o'clock in the morn- 
ing till four o'clock in the afternoon ; being then 
quite worn down with fatigue, and their ammu- 
nition wholly expended, were obliged to retreat. 



112 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" Your representation of the transactions of 
that day, does the Americans an honor you never 
intended. All Europe will revere the fortitude, 
and stand surprised at the firmness and valor, of 
this handful of brave, though undisciplined men. 

*' Or was it, indeed, such a ' glorious ' sight 
to view the field strewed with the mangled corpses 
of a few brave and virtuous Americans ? Or to 
see the agonies and hear the piercing shrieks and 
dying groans of Abercrombie, Pitcairn, and above 
a thousand others of those who were brought 
hither to crush the rising liberty of America, but 
who now lay weltering in their gore? Or to 
behold the inexpressible anguish of the widows 
and orphans made by that day's wicked attempt 
to enslave America ? 

" If such a scene as this is ' glorious ' in your 
eyes, Americans are of opposite sentiments ; 
they lament the loss of those brave Britons, whose 
life and blood should have been reserved for a 
cause of justice against the natural enemies of 
Englishmen. Americans mourn over the wounds 
you compel them to give, and heartily s}^mpathize 
with those widows and orphans, you forced them 
to make. 

" But perhaps it was your laying Charlestown 
in ashes, that has elated your mind, and led you 
to conclude that * the day ended with glory.* 
Remember, sir, any parricide, any assassin, the 
greatest of villains, with proper materials, can set 



BATTLE OF BXJNKER HILL* 113 

Wooden buildings on fire, especially when they 
themselves are as far out of danger as you were 
a;t that time. 

" Was it, indeed, ' glorious ' to see whole 
streets falling together in flaming ruins, owned 
by subjects second to none for their loyalty to the 
monarch of Britain, who, by the way, have now 
sprung to their arms, determined to check the 
bloody career of ministerial vengeance, or perish 
in the attempt ? 

" Was there any necessity, from the exigency 
of the day, for this wanton waste of English 
property, to the amount of one hundred thousand 
pounds sterling? You yourself acknowledged 
that neither Clinton nor you perceived any firing 
from the town of Charlestown, on the troops under 
Lord Howe ; nor did anybody else see any ; for 
I now appeal to his lordship's candor, whether it 
was possible that his troops could have been an- 
noyed by the Americans from any of the houses 
in Charlestown, provided those houses had been 
full of them ? The town of Charlestown was 
always in your power, and you might have set it 
on fire at any hour when you pleased. 

"Would it not have been less inglorious to 
have reserved it for the use of your own troops, 
who have since loaded you v/ith many a curse, 
while suffering in cold and rain, for want of 
being covered in those very buildings you de- 
stroyed? 

10* 



114 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL* 

" If this is your idea of * glory,' I shall think 
that this, and the martial soul you discover, in 
lamenting the absence of your nephew, Thomas 
-Stanley, Esquire, because you were out of the 
direction of the American shot, pretty near of 
a piece. 

" Liberty, peace and glory, to both countries, is 
the voice of America." 



Extract of a letter from Mr. Grant, one of the 
surgeons of the British Military Hospital in 
Boston, to a friend in Westminster, dated June 
23,1775. 

" I have scarce time sufficient to eat my meals ; 
therefore you must expect but a few lines. I 
have been up two nights, assisted with four mates, 
dressing our men of the wounds they received 
the last engagement. Many of the wounded are 
daily dying, and many must have both legs am- 
putated. The provincials had either exhausted 
their ball, or they were determined that every 
wound should prove mortal. Their muskets 
were charged with old nails and angular pieces 
of iron ; and from most of our men being wounded 
in the legs, we are inclined to believe it was their 
design, not wishing to kill the men, but leave them 
as burdens on us, to exliaust our provisions and 
engage our attention, as well as to intimidate the 
rest of the soldiery." 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 115 

Extract of a letter from an officer of rank to a 
gentleman in London, dated, Boston, June 18, 
1775. 

" We left Cork early in April, and after a very 
tedious and disagreeable passage of seven weeks, 
arrived here on the sixteenth day of this month. 
On our landing, we found everything in the 
utmost confusion, partly arising from the mur- 
murs of the soldiery ; the difference of opinion 
among the superior officers; the want of fresh 
provisions ; the general unhealthiness of the 
troops, and, above all, the misery of the wretched 
inhabitants, destitute of food, raiment, or property. 
Whether it was an aggregate of all these, or a 
weakness arising from a sea-sickness, which com- 
menced at the cove of Cork, and only left me on 
my landing, I will not pretend to say, but I have 
been totally confined to my room since last Sat- 
urday. Yesterday morning, the troops were 
ordered under arms at three o'clock, on a boat 
being sent from one of the ships of war to ac- 
quaint us that the provincials were raising works 
in order to besiege us, and put us between cross 
fires. Feeble as I was, I arose and dressed my- 
self, and went down to the head-quarters to offer 
my service. There were two reasons, however, 
which prevented their acceptance; one was the 
state of my health, the other that the regiment I 
belonged to was not ordered out. The troops 
destined for that service were landed on the 



Idfi BATTLE OP BtmKSR HILL. 

Charlestown side between eight and nine o'cloclc; 
but on account of the number of the provincials, 
the troops did not begin the attack for a consid- 
erable time. In the prodigious confusion this 
place is now in, all I can tell now is, that the 
troops behaved with the most unexampled bra- 
very, and after an engagement of nearly five 
hours, we forced the provincials from their posts, 
redoubts, and intrenchments, one by one. This 
victory has cost us very dear, indeed, as we have 
lost some of the best officers in the service, and a 
great number of private men. Nor do I see that 
we enjoy one solid benefit in return, or are likely 
to reap from it any one advantage whatever. We 
have, indeed, learned one melancholy truth, which 
is, that the Americans, if they were equally well 
commanded, are full as good soldiers as ours; 
and as it is, are very little inferior to us, even in 
discipline and steadiness of countenance. This 
sudden, unexpected affair, has had, however, 
one good effect upon me, for I find myself much 
better. 

" P. S. Since I wrote the above, I fell into 
conversation with a gentleman who was present 
in both actions, and who told me that the King's 
troops must have been totally destroyed in each, 
had the provincials knoAvn their own strength, 
particularly on the former's return from Lexing- 
ton to Boston, on the 19th of April." 



iBATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 117 

Extract of a letter from an officer on board one of 
the King's ships at Boston, to his friend in 
London, dated June 23, 1775. 
" On the evening of the sixteenth we Avere 
informed that the provincials were erecting a 
battery on the Heights near Charlestown, and 
that they intended from thence to bombard the 
town of Boston. Early on the seventeenth, we 
were alarmed with an account that they had 
been at work upon it all night, and had nearly 
completed it. We were immediately ordered to 
land some battalions, and in the meantime our 
great guns were fired against those who appeared 
to be busily employed at the battery. Whether 
our shot did not reach far enough to create any 
confusion among them, or it was owing to their 
resolution, I cannot say ; but certain it is, that 
the moment they discovered the landing of our 
troops, they formed in order of battle, and so far 
from retreating, as we expected, they marched 
towards us with the utmost coolness and regu- 
larity. Nothing can exceed the panic and appa- 
rent dislike of most of the King's troops to enter 
into this engagement ; even at the landing, sev- 
eral attempted to run away, and five actually 
took to their heels in order to join the Americans, 
but were presently brought back, and two of them 
were immediately hung up in terrorem to the 
rest. They, for the most part, openly express a 
dislike to the service in which they are engaged, 



118 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

and nothing but the fear of military punishment 
prevents their daily deserting. The generals, 
perceiving the strength and order of the provin- 
cials, ordered a reinforcement to join the troops 
already landed, but before they came up, the can- 
nonading on both sides began. The provincials 
poured down like a torrent, and fought like men 
who had no care for their persons ; they disputed 
every inch of ground, and their numbers were far 
superior to ours. The King's troops gave way 
several times, and it required the utmost efforts 
of the generals to rally them. At the beginning 
of the engagement, many of them absolutely 
turned their backs, not expecting so hot a fire 
jfrom the Americans ; the latter feigned a retreat, 
in order, as we suppose, to draw our troops after 
them, and by that means to cut them in pieces ; 
and we are informed that General Ward had a 
reserve of four thousand men for that purpose. 
The King's troops, concluding that the Americans 
quitted the field through fear, pursued them under 
that apprehension, but did not proceed far enough 
to be convinced by that fatal experience, which 
was, as we hear, designed for them, of their mis- 
take. The engagement lasted upwards of foujr 
hours, and ended infinitely to our disadvantage. 
The flower of our army are killed or wounded. 
During the engagement, Charlestown was set on 
fire by the King's troops, in order to stop the 
progress of the provincials, who, after their sham 



SJLTTEE aP BCNKBE Hltt. 11& 

retreat, returned to attack them; but I think it 
was a wanton act. of the King's troops, who cer- 
tainly, after they had joined the main body of our 
army, had no occasion to take that method of 
retarding the return of the Americans, who, upon 
perceiving that General Ward stood still with his 
reserve, laid aside their intentions. 

" Our troops are sickly, and a great number are 
afflicted with the scurvy, occasioned by the want 
of fresh provisions. I heartily wish myself with 
you and the rest of my friends, and the first op- 
portunity that offers, I will sell out and return, for 
at the best, only disgrace can arise in the service 
of such a cause as that in which we are engaged. 
The Americans are not those poltroons I myself 
was once taught to believe them to be ; they are 
men of liberal and noble sentiments ; their very 
characteristic is the love of liberty ; and though I 
am an officer under the King of Great Britain, I 
tacitly admire their resolution and perseverance 
against the present oppressive measures of the 
British Government." 



Extract of a letter from a merchant in Boston to 
his brother in Scotland, dated June 24, 1775. 
" From the nineteenth of April to the seven- 
teenth of June, nothing very material has hap- 
pened. On the twelfth of June the General 



120 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

issued a proclamation offering his Majesty's most 
gracious pardon to all who would lay down arms 
and return to their duty, excepting two of the 
ringleaders; and likewise establishing martial 
law in this province while this unnatural rebel- 
lion exists ; but no regard was paid to this. 

" On the seventeenth instant, at daylight, it was 
observed by some of the ships of war, that the 
rebels had thrown up an intrenchment on a hill 
on the other side of the river, about one mile from 
this town. The alarm about this new movement 
of theirs was general ; for from this, if they were 
suffered to go on, they could beat down or burn 
the town. At nine o'clock, a battery on an emi- 
nence in this towii, directly opposite to their works, 
began to play upon them, but found they could 
not dislodge them. 

" The rebels fired a few shots into this town, 
and then desisted, for their shot did no execution. 
Eighteen hundred of the best of the troops were 
immediately ordered to embark on board of boats 
and go and engage them, under the command of 
General Howe. About three o'clock they landed 
on the other side, about half a mile from the 
rebels, under the cover of five or six ships of war, 
who kept a continual fire on the ground between 
the place of landing and the enemy, who chose to 
lie close in their breastworks all this time. As 
soon as the troops had got themselves in order, 
they began to advance, cannonading all the way 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 121 

till they came within gunshot. Charlestown, on 
the foot of the hill, consisting of about two hun- 
dred houses, was set on fire by the fort on this 
side, at the instant the engagement began, whose 
flames raged in the most rapid manner, being 
chiefly of wood. Sure I am, nothing ever has 
been, or can be, more dreadfully terrible, than 
what was to be seen and heard at this time ! The 
most incessant discharge of guns that ever was 
heard with mortal ears continued for three quar- 
ters of an hour, and then the troops forced their 
trenches, and the rebels fled. 

*' The place where the battle was fought, is a 
peninsula of a mile long, and a half broad, and 
the troops drove them over the Neck and kept the 
island. All this was seen from this town. 

" A very small part of the enemy's intrench- 
ments was seen on this side, it being only thougl^t 
to be the work of a night ; but their chief breast- 
works w^ere on the other side of the hill ; it was 
found to be the strongest post that was ever occu- 
pied by any set of men, and the prisoners that 
were taken, say they were nine thousand strong, [!] 
and had a good artillery. [!] Five cannons were 
taken. The spirit and bravery that the British 
troops exhibited on this occasion, I suppose is not 
to be surpassed in any history. But oh ! the 
melancholy sight of killed and wounded that was 
seen on that day ! In four hours after their 
landing, not less than five hundred wounded were 
11 



12^ BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL. 

Jelanded here, and one hundred and forty were 
left dead on the field, amongst whom was a large 
proportion of brave officers, viz., thirty-six killed, 
and forty-four wounded; three hundred of the 
tebels were killed, and thirty-six wounded left on 
the field, but they carried off great numbers of 
their wounded on their retreat. To the great sat- 
isfaction of all good men, Doctor Warren was 
slain, who was one of their first and greatest 
leaders. 

" Early next morning I went over and saw the 
field of battle, before any of the dead were buried, 
which was the first thing of the sort that I ever 
saw, and I pray God I may never have the oppor- 
tunity of seeing the like again. The rebels are 
employed since that day fortifying all the hills 
and passes within four miles, to prevent the troops 
from advancing into the country. We hourly 
expect the troops to make a movement against 
them, but they are too few in number, not less 
than twenty thousand being equal to the task. 
I cannot help mentioning one thing, which serves 
to show the hellish disposition of the accursed 
rebels : by parcels of ammunition that were left 
on the field, their balls were all found to be 
poisoned. [!] 

" Thus, brother, I have endeavored to give you 
a short account of the desperate staie of matters 
here since my last, and shall sum up the whole 
with one single observation, viz., the delusion that 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HtLL. l23 

reigns here is as universal and as deeply rooted 
as can be found in the annals of mankind ; and 
of all other rebellions that ever existed in the 
world, it is the most unprovoked. 

" I am, &c," 



• [The following letter, written by Henry Hulton, 
Esq., Commissioner of his Majesty's Customs 
at Boston, is a precious specimen of that arro- 
gance and impertinence with much of which 
our fathers were insulted. Let the reader mark 
the amiable spirit of the writer when he reasons 
that it is a dreadful thing to kill Englishmen, 
Or to make English widows and orphans, but 
that to do the same with regard to Americans 
is but a pleasant pastime.] 

" Boston, June 20, 1775. 
" Dear Sir : I had the favor of a letter from 
you about two months ago. For these two months 
past our situation has been critical and alarming, 
the town being blockaded, and the whole country 
ih arms all around us. The people hare not 
only cut us off from all supplies, but they do their 
utmost to prevent any kind of provision being 
brought us from the neighboring ports ; and as we 
were surprised into these circumstances, I wonder 
we have held out so long as we have done. We 
have bread, salt meat, and fresh fish, and there 



124 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

appears no distress for want of subsistence 
Many thousands of the inhabitants abandoned 
their dwellings, in apprehension that a speedy- 
destruction would fall on the place ; and, indeed, 
we have been wonderfully preserved. The affair 
of the 19th of April prevented the execution of a 
diabolical plot, and had not the troops gone out 
on the 17th instant, it is probable that the town at 
this hour would have been in ashes. The rein- 
forcement to the army from England came very 
timely, for the generals only awaited the arrival 
of these regiments to enter upon action. 

" We are now very anxious for the arrival of 
the second division, and I am afraid it will be 
necessary to have another to that, before the army 
can operate effectually round this place. The 
country is very strong by nature, and the rebels 
have possessed themselves of all the advantageous 
posts, and have thrown up intrenchments in many 
parts. From the heights of this place, we have 
a view of the whole town, the harbor, and country 
round for a great extent, and last Saturday I was 
a spectator of a most awful scene my eyes ever 
beheld. On the morning of the 17th, it was ob- 
served that the rebels had thrown up a breast- 
work, and were preparing to open a battery upon 
the Heights above Charlestown, from whence 
they might incommode the shipping, and destroy 
the north part of Boston. Immediately a cannon- 
ading began from the battery in the north part of 



l?AttLE OF fiUNKER HaL. 125 

the town and the ships of war, on those works, 
and on the enemy, wherever they could be dis* 
covered within reach of their guns. Soon after 
eleven o'clock, the grenadiers, light infantry, ma- 
rines, and two battalions marched out of their 
encampments, and embarked in boats, and before 
high water were landed on a point of land to the 
eastward of Charlestown, and they immediately 
took post on a little eminence. Great was our 
trepidation lest they should be attacked by supe- 
rior numbers, before they could be all assembled 
and properly prepared, but more boats arrived, 
and the whole advanced, some on the other side, 
round the hill where the battery was erected, and 
some through part of Charlestown. On that side 
of the hill which was not visible from Boston, it 
seems very strong lines were thrown up, and 
were occupied by many thousands of the rebels. 
The troops advanced with great ardor towards' 
the intrenchments, but were much galled in the 
assault, both from the artillery and the small arms, 
and many brave officers and men were killed and 
wounded. As soon as they got to the intrench- 
ments, the rebels fled, and many of them were 
Killed in the trenches and in their flight. The 
marines, in marching through part of Charles- 
town, were fired at from the houses, and there 
fell their brave commander, Major Pitcairn. His 
son was likewise wounded. Hearing his father 
was killed, he cried out, 'I have lost my father;' 
11* 



126 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL* 

immediately the corps returned, ' We have lost 
our father.' How glorious to die with -such an 
epitaph ! 

" Upon the firing from the houses, the town 
was immediately set in flames, and at four o'clock, 
we saw the fire and the sword, all the horrors of 
war raging. The town was burning all the 
night; the rebels sheltered themselves in the adja- 
cent hills, and the neighborhood of Cambridge, 
and the army possessed themselves of Charles- 
town Neck. We were exulting in seeing the 
flight of our enemies, but in an hour or two we 
had occasion to mourn and lament. Dear was 
the purchase of our safety ! In the evening the 
streets were filled with the wounded and the dy- 
ing ; the sight of which, with the lamentations of 
the women and children over their husbands and 
fathers, pierced one to the soul. We were now 
every moment hearing of some officer, or other 
of our friends and acquaintance, who had fallen 
in our defence, and in supporting the honor of 
our country. General Howe had his aid-de- 
camp wounded, who is since dead. The Major 
and three Captains of the 52nd were killed, or 
died of their wounds, — most of the grenadiers 
and light infantry, and about eighty officers, are 
killed and wounded. The rebels have occupied 
a hill about a mile from Charlestown Neck ; they 
are very numerous, and have thrown up intrench- 
ments, and are raising a redoubt on the higher 



EATfLE Of BUNKER HltL. 127 

part, whilst the ships and troops cannonade them 
wherever they can reach them. In the same 
manner, on the other side of Boston Neck, on the 
high ground above Roxbury meeting [house,] the 
rebels are intrenching and raising a battery. 
Such is our present situation. In this army are 
many of noble family, many very respectable, 
virtuous, and amiable characters, and it grieves 
one, that gentlemen, brave British soldiers, should 
fall by the hands of such despicable wretches as 
compose the banditti of the country; amongst 
whom there is not one that has the least preten- 
sion to be called a gentleman. They are a most 
rude, depraved, degenerate race, and it is a mor- 
tification to us that they speak English, and can 
trace themselves from that stock. 

" Since Adams went to Philadelphia, one War- 
ren, a rascally patriot and apothecary of this 
town, has had the lead in the Provincial Con- 
gress. He signed commissions, and acted as 
President. This fellow happily was killed, in 
coming out of the trenches the other day, where 
he had commanded and spirited the people, &c., 
to defend the lines, which, he assured them, were 
impregnable. You may judge what the herd 
must be when such a one is their leader. Here 
it is only justice to say that there are many wor- 
thy people in this province, but that the chief of 
them are now in Boston, and that amongst the 



128 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

gentlemen of the Council, particularly, are many 
respectable and worthy characters. 

" I beg my compliments to Mrs. N. and all 
friends with you, and remain, with great regard, 
" Dear sir, yours, 

" H. H.» 
[Henry Hulton, Commissioner of the Customs 
at Boston.] 



PART 11.^ 
AMERICAN DOCUMENTS. 



In Massachusetts Committee of Safety, Cam- 
bridge, June 15, 1775. 

" Whereas, it appears of importance to the 
safety of this colony, that possession of the Hill 
called Bunker's Hill, in Charlestown, be securely 
kept and defended, and also some one hill or hills 
on Dorchester Neck be likewise secured ; therefore, 

" Resolved, unanimously. That it be recom- 
mended to the Council of War, that the above 
mentioned Bunker's Hill be maintained by suffi- 
cient force being posted there ; and as the partic- 
ular situation of Dorchester Neck is unknown to 
this Committee, they desire that the Council of 
War take and pursue such steps respecting the 
same, as to them shall appear to be for the secu- 
rity of this colony." 

" June 17, 1775. 

" The following order was issued to the towns 
in the vicinity of Boston. 

" To the Selectmen of the town of 

*' Gentlemen : You are ordered instantly to 



130 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

send all the town stock of powder you have to 
the town of Watertown, saving enough to furnish 
one pound to each soldier." 

" July 18, 1775. 

" This Committee have with great concern 
considered the adv-antages our enemies will de- 
rive from. General Gage's misrepresentations of 
the battle of Charlestown, unless counteracted by 
the truth of that day's transactions being fairly 
and honestly represented to our friends and others 
in Great Britain ; therefore, 

" Resolved, That it be humbly recommended to 
the honorable Congress now sitting at Water- 
town, to appoint a committee to draw up and 
transmit to Great Britain, as soon as possible, a 
fair, honest, and impartial account of the late 
battle of Charlestown, on the 17th ultimo, so that 
our friends and others in that part of the world, 
may not be in any degree imposed upon by 
General Gage's misrepresentations of that day's 
transactions, and that they also be a Standing 
Comnxittee for that purpose." 

" July 11, 1775. 
" The honorable, the Congress of this colony, 
having passed a resolve that this Committee be 
appointed to draw up and transmit to Great Brit- 
ain a fair and impartial account of the late battle 
of Charlestown, as soon as possible ; this Com- 



BATTLE OF BtJNKER HILL. 131 

mittee being exceedingly crowded with business; 
therefore, 

" Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Cooper, Rev, 
Mr. Gardner, and the Rev. Mr. Peter Thacher, be 
desired to draw up a true state of said action, as 
soon as maybe, and lay it before this Committee." 

In Committee of Safety, July 25, 1775. 
" In obedience to the above order of Congress, 
this Committee have inquired into the premises, 
and upon the best information obtained, find that 
the commanders of the New England army, had, 
about the 14th ult., received advice that General 
Gage had issued orders for a party of the troopg 
under his command to post themselves on Bunker's 
Hill, a promontory just at the entrance of the 
peninsula of Charlestown, which orders were 
soon to be executed. Upon which it was deter- 
mined, with the advice of this Committee, to send 
a party, who might erect some fortifications upon 
said hill, and defeat this design of our enemies. 
Accordingly, on the 16th ult., orders were issued 
that a detachment of one thousand men should 
that evening march to Charlestown, and intrench 
upon that hill. Just before nine o'clock they left 
Cambridge, and proceeded to Breed's Hill, situ- 
ated on the farther part of the peninsula next 
to Boston;' for, by some mistake, this hill was 
marked out for the intrenchment instead of the 
other. Many things being necessary ta be done 



13S BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

preparatory to the intrenchments being thrown 
up, (which could not be done before, lest the 
enemy should discover and defeat the design,) it 
was nearly twelve o'clock, before the works were 
entered upon; they were then carried on with 
the utmost diligence and alacrity, so that by the 
dawn of the day they had thrown up a small 
redoubt, about eight rods square. At this time a 
heavy fire began from the enemy's ships, a num- 
ber of floating batteries, and from a fortification 
of the enemy's upon Copp's Hill, in Boston, 
directly opposite to our little redoubt. An inces- 
sant shower of shot and bombs was rained by 
these upon our works, by which only one man 
fell; the provincials continued to labor indefati- 
gably till they had thrown up a small breastwork, 
extending from the east side of the redoubt to the 
bottom of the hill, but were prevented completing 
it by the intolerable fire of the enemy. 

" Between twelve and one o'clock, a number of 
boats and barges, filled with the regular troops 
from Boston, were observed approaching towards 
Charlestown. These troops landed at a place 
called Morton's Point, situated a little to the east- 
ward of our works. This brigade formed upon 
their landing, and stood thus formed till a second 
detachment arrived from Boston to join them. 
Having sent out large flank guards, they began a 
very slow march towards our lines. At this 
instant smoke and flames were seen to arise from 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 133 

the town of Charlestown, which had heen set on 
fire by the enemy, that the smoke might cover 
their attack upon our lines, and perhaps with a 
design to rout or destroy one or two regiments of 
provincials who had been posted in that town. 
If either of these was their design, they were 
disappointed, for the wind, shifting on a sudden, 
carried the smoke another Way, and the regi- 
ments were already removed. The provincials, 
within their intrenchments, impatiently awaited 
the attack of the enemy, and reserved their fire 
till they came within ten or twelve rods, and then 
began a furious discharge of small arms. This 
fire arrested the enemy, which they for some time 
returned, without advancing a step, and then re- 
treated in disorder, and with great precipitation, 
to the place of landing ; and some of them sought 
refuge even within their boats. Here the officers 
were observed, by the spectators on the opposite 
shore, to run down to them, using the most pas- 
sionate gestures, and pushing the men forward 
with their swords. At length they were rallied, 
and marched up with apparent reluctance towards 
the intrenchment. The Americans again reserved 
their fire until the enemy came up within five or 
six rods, and a second time put the regulars to 
flight, who ran in great confusioli towards their 
boats. Similar and superior exertions were now 
necessarily made by the ofiicers, which, notwith- 
standing the men discovered an almost insuper- 
12 



134 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

able reluctance to fighting in this cause, were 
again successful. They formed once more, and 
having brought some cannon to bear in such a 
manner as to rake the inside of the breastwork 
from one end of it to the other, the provincials 
retreated within their little fort. The ministerial 
army now made a decisive efTort ; the fire from 
the ships and batteries, as well as from the can- 
non in front of their army, was redoubled. The 
officers in the rear of their army were observed to 
goad forward the men with renewed exertions, 
and they attacked the redoubt on three sides at 
once. The breastwork on the outside of the fort 
was abandoned; the ammunition of the provin- 
cials was expended, and few of their arms were 
fixed with bayonets. Can it then be wondered 
that the word was given by the commander of 
the party, to retreat ? But this he delayed till 
the redoubt was half filled with regulars, and 
the provincials had kept the enemy at bay some 
time, confronting them with the butt end of their 
muskets. 

" The retreat of this little handful of brave men 
would have been eSectually cut off, had it not 
happened that the flanking party of the enemy, 
which was to have come up on the back of the 
redoubt, was checked by a party of provincials, 
who fought with the utmost bravery, and kept 
them from advancing farther than the beach. 
The engagement of these two parties was kept 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 135 

up with the utmost vigor ; and it must be ac- 
knowledged that this party of the ministerial 
troops evidenced a courage worthy of a better 
cause. All their efforts, however, were insuffi- 
cient to compel the provincials to retreat, till their 
main body had left the hill. Perceiving this was 
done, they then gave ground, but with more reg- 
ularity than could be expected of troops who had 
no longer been under discipline, and many of 
whom never before saw an engagement. 

" In this retreat, the Americans had to pass 
over the Neck, which joins the peninsula of 
Charlestown to the main land. This Neck was 
commanded by the Glasgow man-of-war, and two 
floating batteries, placed in such a nianner as that 
their shot raked every part of it. The incessant 
fire kept up across this Neck, had, from the 
beginning of the engagement, prevented any con- 
siderable reinforcement from getting to the pro- 
vincials upon the hill, and it was feared would 
cut off their retreat, but they retired over it with 
little or no loss. 

" With a ridiculous parade of triumph, the 
ministerial troops again took possession of the 
hill, which had served them as a retreat in their 
flight from the battle of Concord. It was ex- 
pected that they would prosecute the supposed 
advantage they had gained, by marching imme- 
diately to Cambridge, which was distant about 
two miles, and which was not then in a state of 



136 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

defence. This they failed to do. The wonder 
excited by such conduct soon ceased, when, by 
the best accounts from Boston, we were told that 
of three thousand men who marched out upon 
this expedition, no less than fifteen hundred 
(ninety-two of whom were commissioned officers,) 
were killed or wounded, and about twelve hun- 
dred of them either killed or mortally wounded. 
Such a slaughter was perhaps never before made 
upon British troops in the space of about an hour, 
during which the heat of the engagement lasted, 
by about fifteen hundred men, which were the 
most that were at any time engaged on -the Amer- 
ican side. 

" The loss of the New England army amounted, 
according to an exact return, to one hundred and 
forty-five killed and missing, and three hundred 
and four wounded. Thirty of the first were 
wounded and taken prisoners by the enemy. 
Among the dead was Major General Joseph War- 
ren ; a man whose memory will be endeared to 
his countrymen, and to the worthy in every part 
and age of the world, so long as virtue and valor 
shall be esteemed among mankind. The heroic 
Colonel Gardner, of Cambridge, has since died 
of his wounds ; and the brave Lieut. Colonel 
Parker, of Chelmsford, who was w^ounded and 
taken prisoner, perished in Boston jail. These 
three, with Major Moore, and Major McClary, 
who nobly struggled in the cause of their coun- 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 13? 

try, were the only officers of distinction which we 
lost. Some officers of great worth, though infe* 
rior in rank, were killed, whom we deeply lament ; 
hut the officers and soldiers in general who were 
wounded, are in a fair way of recovery. 

" The town of Charlestown, the buildings of 
which were in general large and elegant, and 
which contained effects belonging to the unhappy 
sufferers in Boston, to a very great amount, was 
entirely destroyed ; and its chimneys and cellars 
now present a prospect to the Americans, exciting 
an indignation in their bosoms which nothing can 
appease but the sacrifice of those miscreants who 
have introduced desolation and havoc into these 
once happy abodes of liberty, peace and plenty. 

" Though the officers and soldiers of the min- 
isterial army meanly exult in having gained this 
ground, yet they cannot but attest to the bravery 
of our troops, and acknowledge that the battles of 
Fontenoy and Minden, according to the numbers 
engaged, and the time the engagement continued, 
were not to be compared with this ; and, indeed, 
the laurels of Minden were totally blasted in the 
battle of Charlestown. The ground purchased thus 
dearly by the British troops, affords them no ad- 
vantage against the American army, now strongly 
intrenched on a neighboring eminence. The 
Continental troops, nobly animated from the just- 
ice of their cause, sternly urge to decide the con- 
test by the sword; but we wish for no farther 
12* 



138 BATTLE OP BUNKER HILL* 

effusion of blood, if the freedom and peace of 
America can be secured without it. But if it 
must be otherwise, we are determined to struggle. 
We disdain life without liberty. 

" O, Britons ! be wise for yourselves before it 
is too late, and secure a commercial intercourse 
with the American colonies before it is forever 
lost ; disarm your ministerial assassins ; put an 
end to this unrighteous and unnatural war, and 
suffer not any rapacious despots to amuse you 
with the unprofitable ideas of your right to tax 
and officer the colonies, till the most profitable 
and advantageous trade you have is irrecoverably 
lost. Be wise for yourselves, and the Americans 
will contribute to and rejoice in your prosperity. 
"J. Palmer, per order." 



" In regard to what I know of the setting fire 
to Charlestown, on the 17th of June, is — I was 
on Copp's Hill, at the landing of the troops in 
Charlestown ; and about one hour after the troops 
were landed, orders came down to set fire to the 
town, and soon after a carcass was discharged 
from the Hill, which set fire to one of the old 
houses, just above the ferry-ways ; from that, the 
meeting-house and several other houses were set 
on fire by carcasses ; and the houses at the eastern 
end of the town were set on fire by men landed 
out of the boats. Willlam Cockran." 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 139 

"Middlesex ss., August 16, 1775. 
"Then William Cockran personally appeared 
before me, the subscriber, and made solemn oath 
to the truth of the within deposition. 

."James Otis, 

SA Justice of the Peace, through the Province of 
Massachusetts Bay, in New E7igland" 



[The foregoing account of the battle of Charles- 
town was transmitted to London, soon after the 
date, accompanied with a letter to Arthur Lee, 
Esq., of which the following is a copy, viz. :] 

"In Committee of Safety, Watertown, July 25, 
1775. 
" Sir : The Committee of Safety of this Colo- 
ny, having been ordered by the honorable Provin- 
cial Congress to draw up and transmit to Great 
Britain a fair and impartial account of the late 
battle of Charlestown, beg leave to enclose the 
same to you, desiring you to insert the same in 
the public papers, so that the European world 
may be convinced of the causeless and unexam- 
pled cruelty with which the British ministry have 
treated the mnocent American Colonies. 
" We are, sir, with great respect, 

your most humble servant, 

" J. Palmer, per order, 
" To Arthur Lee, Esq., at Loudon." 



I4d BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" In Massachusetts Provincial Congress, June 20 
1775. 
" The committee appointed to prepare a letter 
to the Continental Congress, reported. The report 
was read, paragraph by paragraph, and accepted, 
and ordered to be transcribed, authenticated, and 
sent forward, and is as follows: 

" To the Honorable, the Continental Congress, 
now sitting at Philadelphia. 

" May it please your honors : 

" We think it our indispensable duty to inform 
you that reinforcements from Ireland, both of 
horse and foot, being arrived, (the number un- 
known,) and having good intelligence that General 
Gage was about to take possession of the advan- 
tageous posts in Charlestown and on Dorchester 
Point, the Committee of Safety advised that our 
troops should prepossess them, if possible. Ac- 
cordingly, on Friday evening, the 16th instant, 
this was effected by about twelve hundred men. 
About daylight on Saturday morning their line 
of circumvallation, on a small hill south of Bun- 
ker's Hill, in Charlestown, was closed. At this 
time the Lively, man-of-war, began to fire upon 
them. A number of our enemy's ships, tenders, 
cutters and scows, or floating batteries, soon came 
up, from all which the fire was general by twelve 
o'clock. About two the enemy began to land at 
a point which leads out towards Noddle's Island, 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 141 

and immediately marched up to our mtrench- 
ments, from which they were twice repulsed ; but 
in the third attack forced them. Our forces, 
which were in the lines, as well as those sent for 
their support, were greatly annoyed on every 
side, by balls and bombs from Copp's Hill, the 
ships, scows, ifec. At this time the buildings in 
Charlestown appeared in flames, in almost every 
quarter, kindled by red-hot balls, and are since 
laid in ashes. Though this scene was most hor- 
rible, and altogether new to most of our men, yet 
many stood, and received wounds by swords and 
bayonets, before they quitted their lines. At five 
o'clock the enemy were in full possession of all 
the posts within the isthmus. In the evening 
and the night following, General Ward extended 
his intrenchments before made at the stone house, 
over Winter Hill. About six o'clock, P. M., of 
the same day, the enemy began to cannonade 
Roxbury from Boston Neck, and elsewhere, which 
they continued twenty-four hours with little spirit 
and less effect. 

" The number of killed and missing, on our 
side, is not known, but supposed by some to be 
about sixty or seventy, and by some considerably 
above that number. Our most worthy friend and 
President, Doctor Warren, lately elected a Major 
General, is among them. This loss we feel most 
sensibly. Lieut. Colonel Parker, and Major 
Moore, of this Colony, and Major McClary, from 



142 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

New Hampshire, are also dead. Three colonels, 
and perhaps one hundred men, are wounded. 
The loss of the enemy is doubtless great. By 
an anonymous letter from Boston, we are told 
that they exult much in having gained the ground, 
though their killed and wounded amount to about 
one thousand; but this account exceeds every 
other estimation. The number they had engaged 
is supposed to be between three and four thousand. 
If any error has been made on our side, it was in 
taking a post so much exposed." 

[The above was received and read in the Con- 
tinental Congress, June 27.] 



" Account of an engagement at Charlestown, be- 
tween about three thousand of the King's regu- 
lar troops, and about half that number of Pro- 
vincials, on Saturday, the 17th of June, 1775. 

" On Friday night, June sixteenth, fifteen hun- 
dred of the provincials went to Bunker's Hill, in 
order to intrench there, and continued intrench- 
ing till Saturday, at ten o'clock, when two thou- 
sand regulars marched out of Boston, landed in 
Charlestown, and, plundering it of all its valuable 
effects, set fire to it in ten different places at once. 
Then dividing their army, one part of it marched 
up in front of the provincials' intrenchments, 
and began to attack the provincials at long shot ; 
the other part of the army marched round the 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 143 

town of Charlestown, under cover of the smoke 
occasioned by the town. The provincial sentries 
discovered the regulars marching upon their left 
wing. Upon notice of this, given by the sentry 
to the Connecticut forces posted on that wing, 
Captain Nolton [Knowlton] of Ashford, with four 
hundred of said forces, immediately repaired to 
and pulled up a post and rail fence, and carrying 
the posts and rails to another fence, put them 
together for a breastwork. Captain Nolton gave 
orders to the men not to fire till the enemy had 
got within fifteen rods, and then not till the word 
was given. At the word being given, the enemy 
fell surprisingly. It was thought, by spectators 
who stood at a distance, that our men did great 
execution. The action continued about two hours, 
when the regulars on the right wing were put 
into confusion and gave way. The Connecticut 
troops closely pursued them, and were on the 
point of pushing their bayonets, when orders were 
received from General Pomeroy, for those who 
had been in action two hours, to fall back, and 
their places to be supplied by fresh forces. These 
orders being mistaken for a direction to retreat, 
our troops on the right wing began a general 
retreat, which was handed to the left, the princi- 
pal place of action, where Captains Nolton, Ches- 
ter, Clarke and Putnam, had forced the enemy 
to give way and retire before them for some con- 
siderable distance, and being warmly pursuing 



144 BATTLE OF BUNKEH HlLI/. 

the enemy, were with difficulty persuaded to 
retire; but the right wing, by mistaking the 
orders, having already retired, the left, to avoid 
being encircled, were obliged to retreat ; and, with 
the main body, they retreated with precipitation 
across the causeway to Winter Hill, in which 
they were exposed to the fire af the enemy from 
their shipping and floating batteries. 

We sustained our principal loss in passing the 
causeway. The enemy pursued our troops to 
Winter Hill, where the provincials, being rein- 
forced by General Putnam, renewed the battle 
with great spirit, repulsed the enemy with great 
slaughter, and pursued them till they got under 
cover of their cannon from the shipping, when 
the enemy retreated to Bunker's Hill, and the 
provincials to Winter Hill, where, after intrench- 
ing and erecting batteries, they on Mo-nday began 
to fire upon the regulars on Bunker's Hill, and 
on the ships and the floating batteries in the har- 
bor, when the express came away. The number 
of the provincials killed is between forty and 
seventy ; one hundred and forty wounded ; of 
the Connecticut troops sixteen were killed ; no 
officer among them was either killed or wounded, 
except Lieutenant Grosvenor, who is wounded in 
the hand. A colonel or lieutenant colonel of the 
New Hampshire forces is among the dead. It is 
also said that Dr. Warren is undoubtedly among 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 145 

the slain. The provincials lost three iron six 
pounders, some intrenching tools, and knapsacks. 

" The number of regulars that first attacked the 
provincials on Bunker's Hill, was not less than 
two thousand. The number of provincials was 
only fifteen hundred, who, it is supposed, would 
soon have gained a complete victory, had it not 
been for the unhappy mistake already mentioned. 
The regulars were afterwards reinforced with a 
thousand men. It is uncertain how great a num- 
ber of the enemy were killed or wounded ; but it 
was supposed, by spectators who saw the whole 
action, that there could not be less than four or 
five hundred killed. Mr. Gardner, who got out 
of Boston on Sunday evening, says that there 
were five hundred wounded men brought into 
that place the morning before he came out." 

"This account was taken from Captain Elijah 
Hide, of Lebanon, who was a spectator on Winter 
Hill, during the whole action." 



*' ColonelJohn Stark to New Hampshire Congress. 

" Medford, June 19, 1775. 

" Sir : I embrace this opportunity, by Colonel 

Holland, to give you some particular infoimation 

of an engagement or battle, which happened on 

the seventeenth instant, between the British troops 

13 



146 BATTLE OF BUI^KER HlLLi 

and the Americans. On the sixteenth instant, at 
evening, a detachment of about twenty-five hun- 
dred men, of the Massachusetts forces, marched, 
by the General's order, to make an intrenchment 
on a hill in Charlestown, called Charlestown Hill, 
near Boston, where they intrenched that night 
without interruption, but were attacked on the 
seventeenth, in the morning, by the shipping in 
Charlestown river and batteries in Boston, very 
warmly. Upon which I was required by the 
General to send a party, consisting of two hun- 
dred men, with officers, to their assistance ; which 
order I readily obeyed, and appointed and sent 
Colonel Wyman commander of the same ; and 
about two o'clock in the afternoon, express orders 
came for the whole of my regiment to proceed to 
Charlestown, to oppose the enemy, who were 
landing on Charlestown Point. Accordingly, 
we proceeded, and the battle soon came on, in 
which a number of officers belonging to my regi- 
ment were killed, and many privates killed and 
wounded. 

" The officers who suffered were, Major McCla 
ry, by a cannon ball ; Captain Baldwin and Lieu 
tenant Scott, by small arms. The whole number 
including officers, who were killed and missing, 
fifteen ; those who were wounded, forty-five , 
killed, wounded, and missing, sixty. 

" By Colonel Read's desire, I transmit the 
account of the sufferers in his regiment, who were 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 147 

in battle. Killed, three ; wounded, twenty-nine ; 
missing, one ; killed, wounded, and missing, thirty- 
three. 

" But we remain in good spirits as yet, being 
well satisfied that where we have lost one, they 
have lost three. I would take it as a favor, if 
the Committee of Safety would immediately re- 
commend to the several towns and parishes in the 
province of New Hampshire, the necessity of stop- 
ping and sending back all the soldiers belonging 
to the New Hampshire forces, (stationed at Med- 
ford,) they may find there from the army, not 
having a furlough from the commanding officer. 
" I am. Sir, with great respect, 

yours and the country's, to 

serve in the common cause, 

"John Stark." 



" Thaddeus Burr to General Wooster. 

" Fairfield, June 25, 1775 ; 12 o'clock. 

" Sir : Captain Jonathan Maltbie, who went 
express from here last Sabbath, has this day 
returned from Watertown, which place he left 
last Thursday at four o'clock, afternoon, and the 
intelligence brought by him being so direct, I 
thought it my duty to forward it to you, which is 
as follows, viz. : 



148 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" Copy of a letter from Mr. Isaac Lothrop, one of 
the Provincial Congress, at Watertown. 

Watertown, June 22, 1775. 
" Before this reaches you, you will doubtless 
hear of the engagement of last Saturday, between 
our troops and those of the army at Boston ; but 
lest you should not be well informed, I will now 
undertake to give you as regular an account as 
can at present be obtained. Last Friday even- 
ing, a detachment from the camp at Cambridge 
marched to Charlestown, and there took posses- 
sion of Breed's Hill, about half a mile from the 
ferry ; their intrenching tools not com.ing up in 
season, it was twelve o'clock before they began 
their works. As soon as daylight appeared, they 
were discovered from Boston, when the men-of- 
war in the ferry, the battery from Copp's Hill, 
and the floating batteries, kept up a continual 
cannonading and bombarding, which fortunately 
did but little execution, although our intrench- 
ments were far from being completed. This con- 
tinued till about two o'clock, when a large army 
of between four and five thousand men, (as we 
since hear from Boston,) under the command of 
General Howe, landed on the back of the hill, 
and marched up with great seeming resolution 
towards our lines. Our men reserved their fire 
till the enemy '' id advanced very near, when a 
general engagement ensued. The fire from our 
lines was so excessively heavy, and made such a 



BATTLE OF BVNKER HILL* 149 

terrible slaughter, as obliged the enemy twice to 
give way, although many of their officers stood 
in the rear with their swords pointed at their 
backs, ready to run them through. Our men 
kept up a continual blaze upon them for about an 
hour, with such execution as is scarce credible. 
The enemy then came on the flanks, marched up, 
and forced their way over the ramparts with fixed 
bayonets, cutlasses, and hand-grenades, which 
obliged our little brave army, consisting only of 
about five hundred men at most, to retreat. 

*' The town of Charlestown was fired in various 
parts during the action, and is now consumed to a 
wretched heap of rubbish. I kept my ground at 
Watertown, but what with the thundering of can- 
non and small arms, the conflagration of Charles- 
town, the waggons and horse-litters, with the 
wounded men coming to the hospital in this town, 
and the streaming of expresses to and fro, exhib- 
ited such an awful scene as I pray God Almighty 
I may never again behold. The brave and 
worthy Doctor Warren was killed, stripped, and 
buried, within the intrenchment. 

" Our numbers killed are not yet known ; but 
by the best account I can obtain, it will not much 
exceed fifty, and the w^ounded short of a hundred. 
Several credible persons have since made their 
escape by water from Boston, some of whom I 
well know. The latest out says, that upwards of 
fourteen hundred of the enemy were killed and 
13# 



150 BATTLE OF BUNKEE HILL. 

wounded, with eighty-four officers; and .that 
twenty-eight of our men were made prisoners, 
and the enemy had buried forty-one of our dead. 
Ail agree that the loss of the enemy in killed and 
wounded is more than one thousand. General 
Howe says, you may talk of your Mindens and 
your Fontenoys, &c., but he never saw nor heard 
of such carnage in so short a time. All the sur- 
geons in the army, with what they could get in 
Boston, were not sufficient to dress the wounded. 
Although they were twenty-four hours, night and 
day, in removing them from Charlestown, with 
the assistance of many of the inhabitants of Bos- 
ton, whom they pressed into the service, many 
died in the streets, on their way to the hospitals. 

" N. B. Doctor Mather had his whole furni- 
ture, with his library, plate, &c., consumed in the 
fire at Charlestown. 

" I have employed Mr. Samuel Penfield to go 
with this ; if you think it proper to forward this ac- 
count to New York, he will be ready to serve you. 

" You will excuse my sending it open, as I 
think it best for every one to know with what 
bravery our men have acted, and how God in his 
providence seems to appear for us. 

" Mr. Penfield will also hand you a paper from 
Cambridge, which contains some particulars. 
" I am, in the utmost haste, Sir, 

your friend and humble servant, 

" Thaddeus Burr. 

" To General Wooster, at Greenwich/' 



BATTLE 0? BUNKER HILL. 151 

Letter from Rev. Andrew Eliot, Pastor of the 

New North Church in Boston, to Rev. Isaac 

Smith, of Boston, then in London. 

" Boston, June, 19, 1775. 

" My dear Sir : According to your desire, I 
write without ceremony, to acquaint you with the 
state of things in Boston. You left us shut up, 
and the people removing from the place as fast as 
they were permitted. I am told that more than 
nine thousand are removed ; many more were pre- 
paring to follow, but passes have been stopped for 
some time. So that thousands are detained who 
desire to go, among whom I am one. I tarried 
purely out of regard to the inhabitants who were 
left, that they might not be without ordinances 
and worship in the way which they choose. It is 
now, perhaps, too late to think of removing, as all 
communication is at present stopped. 

" The last Saturday gave us a dreadful speci- 
men of the horrors of civil war. Early on Sat- 
urday morning, we were alarmed by the firing of 
cannon from the fort which is erected on Copp's 
Hill, and from the ships which lie in Charles 
river. Upon inquiry it was found that the pro- 
vincials had been forming lines on a hill below 
the hill in Charlestown, commonly called Bun- 
ker's Hill. This intrenchment was calculated ex- 
tremely well to annoy Boston, and the ships in 
the harbor. About one o'clock a large body of 
British troops set off from Boston to attack thiese 



1B2 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

lines. About three o'clock the engagement began, 
and lasted perhaps an hour. Great part of the time 
the firing seemed incessant. It seems the troops 
stormed the lines, and, after a warm opposition, 
carried them. Perhaps there has seldom been a 
more desperate action. As the provincials were 
up to the chin intrenched, they made a great 
slaughter of the King's troops before they (the 
provincials) retreated. How many were killed on 
each side, it is impossible for me to say. It is 
generally agreed that 80 or 90 officers were killed 
or wounded on the side of the regulars. It was 
a new and awful spectacle to us to have men car- 
ried through the streets groaning, bleeding, and 
dying. Some of the best officers are taken off, 
and some hundreds of the privates. The attack 
was commenced by General Howe. How the 
provincials have suffered, is not yet known ; nor, 
indeed, shall I pretend to give a particular account 
of this terrible scene. You must take this from 
the prints. Dr. Warren is among the slain. It 
is said he had the chief direction of the defence ; 
if this is true, it seems to me he was out of his line. 

" Since this action the King's troops have 
taken possession of Bunker's Hill, and fortified it 
strongly. On the other side, the provincials are 
intrenching themselves on the hill back of the 
road in Charlestown, just beyond the two mile 
stone. 

" Amidst the carnage of Saturday, the town of 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 153 

Charlestown was set on fire, and I suppose every 
dwelling-house and every public building is con- 
sumed, till you have passed the passage to the 
mills, and are come to the houses where Woods, 
the baker, dwelt. You may easily judge what 
distress we were in to see and hear Englishmen 
destroying one another, and a town with which 
we have been so intimately connected, all in flames. 
We are left in anxious expectation of the event. 
God grant the blood already spilt may suffice, — 
but this we cannot reasonably expect. May we 
be prepared for every event. 

" It is talked that a further attack will be made 
on the provincials, but I cannot pretend to guess 
what will be the motion on either side, though 
every one I meet seems to be as able to tell as if 
they were admitted into the Council of War. 

•V- -U- Otf. .U. .M, 

•A" "TV- -JV- -fS^ •^ 

" I forgot to mention that a few days before the 
action, the Governor issued a proclamation, offer- 
ing pardon to all that would lay down their arms 
except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and at 
the same time putting us under martial law. It 
would be a great comfort to me if I could leave 
the town, but I submit to what God is pleased to 
order. 

=?fr # ^ ^ # 

" I write in great haste and perturbation of 
mind. You will, therefore, excuse every impro- 
priety, and will not wonder I do not write more 



154 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

in this very critical day. But however Provi- 
dence may dispose of me, that you may enjoy 
every blessing you can yourself desire, is the ear- 
nest prayer of your sincere friend and humble 
servant. Andrew Eliot. 

"P. S. June 22. — Things have been pretty 
quiet since the above. We have no communica- 
tion with those on the other side of the water, but 
can perceive they are fortifying at Chelsea, Mai- 
den, Winter Hill, the hills in Roxbury, Dorchester, 
and where not ? Every inch of ground will be 
disputed. Can no way be found to accommodate 
these unhappy differences ? The God of heaven 
preserve us ! — it is an inexhaustible source of 
comfort that the government of the world is just 
where it is. A. E." 



THE MONUMENT UPON BREED'S HILL. 



The imposing structure which now rises upon 
the Heights of Charlestown, marks the summit 
where the small redouht was thrown up by the 
American patriots, on the night of the 16th of 
June, 1775. The battle has so long been associ- 
ated with the name of Bunker's Hill, that it seems 
now almost vain to attempt to make the correction, 
which, indeed, some may think wholly unimpor- 
tant. / The probability is that Breed's Hill was 
considered generally as only a spur of Bunker's 
Hill, and was not distinguished by name, except 
among the residents in Charlestown and those 
familiar with the localities of the spot. There 
are charts and views of the town, taken before 
and after the battle, in which the lesser summit 
appears without any designation. As soon as the 
spot became famous, this confusion of the names 
began to be manifest ; and the fact is worthy of 
aotice only as it presents an instance that ena- 



156 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

bles US to account for the disputes which, in the 
absence of historic documents, have been attached 
to other famous spots on the surface of the earth. 
To perpetuate the memory of such localities, and 
to secure them against the dubious haze with 
which the lapse of time invests them, is perhaps 
the best argument which can be adduced for the 
erection of costly monuments. Still, there will 
be, as there now is, a great difference of opinion 
as to the expediency of such structures. The open 
battle field, undisturbed and unaltered through 
all time, would be for many far preferable to any 
monument. 

Previous to the erection of the granite monu- 
ment on Breed's Hill, the summit was distin- 
guished by a small column in honor of Major 
General Warren, who was regarded as the most 
eminent and deserving of the martyrs of liberty 
that fell there. His body was identified, on the 
morning after the battle, by Doctor JefiVies, of 
Boston, an intimate acquaintance of the patriot. 
The British regarded this victim as pajring the 
price of the multitude of their own slain, and the 
spot where they interred him was marked. After 
the evacuation of Boston, by the British troops, 
and the return of its citizens to their homes, the 
friends of Warren disinterred his remains. They 
were taken from the hill, and on the eighth of 
April, 1776, being carried in procession from the 
Representatives' Chamber to King's Chapel, were 



BtTNKER HILL MONUMENT. 157 

buried with all military honors and those of Ma- 
sonry. Prayers were offered on the occasion, by 
the Rev. Dr. Cooper, and a funeral oration was 
delivered by Mr. Perez Morton, in which he 
boldly and earnestly urged an entire separation 
from Great Britain, as the right and duty of the 
colonists. The remains of General Warren now 
rest within the cemetery beneath St. Paul's 
church. 

At the time of his death, Warren was Grand 
Master of Freemasons, for North America ; and 
as such, it seemed to the members of his order 
that they owed to him some tribute of respectful 
regard. No monument had been erected on the 
spot where he fell in behalf of his country, and 
measures were therefore instituted for this double 
purpose. 

A lodge of Freemasons was constituted in 
Charlestown, in 1783, and from its funds a mon- 
umental column was erected to the memory of 
Warren, in 1794, on land given by the Hon. 
James Russell. It was composed of a brick pe- 
destal eight feet square, rising ten feet from the 
ground, and supporting a Tuscan pillar, of wood, 
eighteen feet high. This was surmounted by a 
gilt urn, bearing the inscription — " J. W., aged 
85," entwined with Masonic emblems. On the 
south side of the pedestal was the following 
inscription : 

14 



158 BUNKER HILL M0N1;'.'.£NT. 

" Erected A. D. MDCCXCIV., 

By King Solomon's Lodge of Free Masons, 

constituted in Charlestown, 1783, 

In Memory of 

Major General Joseph Warren, 

and his Associates, 

who were slain on this memorable spot, June 17, 

1775. 

None but they who set a just value upon the 

blessings of liberty are worthy to enjoy her. In 

vain we toiled; in vain we fought; we bled in 

vain; if you, our offspring, want valor to repel 

the assaults of her invaders. 

Charlestown settled. 1628. 
Burnt, 1775. ' Rebuilt, 1776." 

This column stood without the redoubt, and on 
the spot where Warren was believed to have fallen. 
It remained for forty years, and was so much 
defaced by time that it was removed when the 
present granite structure was contemplated. The 
remembrance of it will be cherished by those 
who were familiar with it from a distance, or near 
at hand. 

The erection of a substantial monument on this 
summit had long been desired and contemplated. 
It was thought to be due as a tribute of respect 
to the patriots who, in an early day of the Revolu- 
tion, risked all that was dear to them as individu- 
als, on a fearful hazard, for the good of their 



BU]}* ^R HILL Monument. 159 

common country. We must suppose and believe 
that in the awful strife, amid the shrieks and 
groans of battle, and in sight of the homes which 
these patriots loved, some better feeling than 
that of brute courage, or thirst for blood, an- 
imated them. How much of their fortitude 
they borrowed from the conviction that their 
country would honor their memory, and that their 
children would mark the spot where they suffered, 
we may only imagine. The objection which 
many conscientious persons feel to such a com- 
memoration, seems to be founded on the belief that 
a battle monument is designed to perpetuate the 
feelings of animosity and strife between the de- 
scendants of the contending parties. But this is 
an error ; and the disapprobation of monumental 
structures, founded upon such a misconception, 
would equally apply to all histories and delinea- 
tions of battles. We wish to express our grateful 
sense of the devotion and bravery of those who 
bore severe sufferings to relieve us of lighter 
burdens. All that we desire to commemorate by 
the towering pile now reared on the battle-field, 
is patriotism and self-sacrifice. We believe the 
cause was just; the Briton may regard it oth- 
erwise ; but we may alike stand upon the spot 
and honor the heroism of its victims, without the 
rising of one vengeful feeling. 

It was the general opinion that if any monu- 
ment were to be erected, it should be a substantial 



160 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

one, which should do credit to its builders, and to 
their fathers ; and instead of being reared at the 
expense of a few wealthy men, or at public cost, 
should be a free-will oflering- from all the citizens 
of this Commonwealth, and of its sister Common- 
wealths, according to their means. The result 
has been such as to make it probable that there is 
not a structure in this country on which the free 
contributions of so many individuals have been 
expended as upon this. . Subscriptions were first 
asked for in the year 1824. An Association, 
called " The Bunker Hill Monument Association," 
was formed, membership of which was to be 
enjoyed by those who subscribed five dollars. An 
engraved diploma was their certificate, and their 
names were inscribed upon the parchment records 
deposited within the corner-stone. 

Some incident or circumstance which should 
connect an enthusiastic feeling with the com- 
mencement of the work, was felt to be necessary. 
An occasion and opportunity for this presented 
itself on the visit of the Marquis de La Fayette, 
our honored General, to this land, whose battles 
he had fought with the ardor of youthful heroism, 
and whose prosperity was dear to him to the last 
day of his life. In the midst of his triumphant 
progress through the country, his services were en- 
listed in this work. Though the plan of the struc- 
ture had not at this time been decided upon, yet it 
was thought most desirable that the ceremonies 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 161 

of laying the corner-stone should be performed 
by and in the presence of 'the guest of the nation. 
Accordingly, on the 17th of June, 1825, it being 
the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, this desire 
was gratified. In the midst of an immense con- 
course of people, the ceremonies were performed. 
By advertisements and invitations previously in- 
serted in the newspapers, the veterans who sur- 
vived the day of slaughter were earnestly desired, 
free of all charge to themselves, to come from 
their homes, however distant, arid present them- 
selves, in one venerable group of worthies, to 
receive the grateful offering of a free people, on 
the first jubilee of the battle. In the multitude 
that answered these invitations the number of 
those who were actually engaged in the battle 
could not be ascertained, as some were of the 
reinforcements, who did not enter the field, some 
belonged to regiments or companies then at hand, 
but not ordered for the occasion, and others were 
near or distant spectators of the action. Enough 
there were of the true remnant to show their 
scars and recount the scenes the memory of which 
the lapse of fifty years had not dimmed. The 
younger survivors of the band professed them- 
selves still ready for service, should like occasion 
demand it ; nor, among those whose feeble limbs 
tottered under the heaviest burden of years, was 
there one whose chilled blood did not glow over 
the sods of the battle-field, while the starting tear 
14^ 



162 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT* 

told that they were thinking of their companions 
in arms. They were eloquently and touchingly 
addressed by the Hon. Daniel Webster, the orator 
of the occasion. La Fayette, standing as one in 
that group of survivors, and regTetting that the 
honor did not of right belong to him, laid with 
his own hands the corner-stone of the projected 
monument. Masonic ceremonies were connected 
with the occasion. 

We cannot, however, attribute to La Fayette the 
honor of having laid the corner-stone > of the 
present structure. The office in which he was 
enlisted was a matter of mere form; no plan 
having been selected, of course no adequate foun- 
dation was made. The stone which had been 
laid by La Fayette, was afterwards put into the 
centre of the foundation; and the box of depos- 
ites which it contained, was taken out and en- 
closed in the present corner-stone, which is at the 
north-eastern angle of the structure, looking 
towards the point of landing of the enemy. The 
plan of the monument was devised by Mr. Solo- 
mon Willard, of Boston, a distinguished architect ; 
and his original design, followed throughout, has 
been brought to a successful completion. 

The plan having been decided upon, the work 
was resumed about the middle of March, 1827, 
by the excavation of a new foundation. A quarry 
of sienite granite, situated at Quincy, eight miles 
distant, had been purchased and wrought upon 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 163 

during the previous spring. The stone used for 
the foundation, and for the first forty feet of the 
structure, was transported from the quarry on a 
railway to the wharf in Quincy, where it was put 
into flat-bottomed boats, towed by steam power to 
the wharf in Charlestown, and then raised to the 
Hill by teams moving upon an inclined plane. 
The repeated transfer of the stones, necessary in 
this mode of conveyance, being attended with 
delay, liability to accident, and a defacing of the 
blocks, was abandoned after the fortieth foot 
was laid, and the materials were transported by 
teams, directly from the quarry to the hill. Some 
of the blocks present dark stains upon their sur- 
faces, caused by the presence of iron. Sometimes, 
in the process of hewing and hammering, these 
stains would disappear, but for a season they 
seem to grow brighter by exposure to the air, and 
then by process of time, the influence of the 
atmosphere, the weather, and the winter frost, 
they gradually fade away. Several of these 
stains appear upon the last half of the structure, 
but it is believed they will slowly disappear. 
The application of any chemical agent for their 
removal would not be advisable ; indeed, some 
persons think they add to the beauty of a granite 
pile, when sparingly distributed over it. No one 
can stand and look at the structure, or scan it 
with a close observation, without being impressed 
with the wonderful mathematical accuracy which 



164 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

distinguishes it. The joints of the stones seem 
to he chiselled with great exactness, as if they 
were worked with all the ease with which the 
carpenter shapes his wood; and the diminution 
of the obelisk, a work of extreme difficulty, has 
heen faultlessly executed. A slight failure or 
error in either of these particulars would have 
been a hideous deformity, and would have en- 
dangered the stability of the structure. We rely 
for its permanence upon its mathematical accu- 
racy, as much as upon the solidity of its materials. 
The distinguished honor of having thus with 
scientific precision begun and completed the im- 
posing structure, belongs to Mr. James Savage, 
of Boston. Of many great public works, the 
builder has been wholly forgotten ; of others, the 
credit has been withheld from the mechanical 
geniuses who executed them, and has been all 
bestowed upon those who have drafted the plan 
upon paper. But to execute such a work, how- 
ever skilfully it may have been planned, demands 
a rare union of talents. To take in the concep- 
tion, to comprehend its details, to criticise its 
excellences or defects, to suggest improvements, 
to invent facilities, to combine two or more objects, 
and then to watch each laborious process, guard- 
ing against accidents and mistakes ; to do all this, 
requires one who is much more than a mechanic. 
In such a structure as the monument, though it 
is very simple, patience, care, skill and ingenious 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 165 

device were continually needed. Mr. Savage 
possessed all the requisite qualifications, and his 
name ought to go down to posterity with the 
monument. Those who watched the rising of 
the pile, could not fail to observe his unwearied 
and unerring interest in his work. He might 
be seen above or below, as occasion called for 
him ; now superintending the setting of a step ; 
now suspended upon a plank at a dizzy eminence 
outside the structure; now testing the strength 
of a fastening, or, with his hand upon the bell- 
wire, sending notice to the engine to rest, just as 
a ponderous stone, poised high in air, was gently 
weighing over the upper courses of the obelisk. 
And to complete the effect of his presence of 
mind and skill, there was no haste or bustle in 
his movements, and he was ready to answer the 
questions of every visitor. But one accident 
occurred during the whole work. A laborer, 
while engaged in laying the last stone of the 
twelfth course, on the south-west corner, was 
pushed off and killed. 

The whole structure was made under the 
superintendence of Mr. Savage, under three dif- 
ferent contracts. At first he was engaged as 
builder by Mr. Willard, the architect, and fur- 
nished the materials and the labor. This arrange- 
ment continued during the years 1827 and 1828, 
when the foundation and fourteen courses of the 
superstructure were laid. In August, 1828, the 



166 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

work was suspended on account of deficiency of 
funds, about $56,000 having been expended, in- 
cluding- the purchase of the right in the quarry 
for all the necessary materials, the gearing at the 
wharves and on the hill, which was complicated 
and expensive, but not including the purchase of 
the land. 

In the summer of 1S34, the work was resumed. 
Mr. Savage, being still employed by Mr. Willard, 
was obliged, on account of an engagement for 
service under the United States government, to 
commit the oversight of the work to Mr. Charles 
Pratt, though by occasional visits he continued 
to superintend and direct it. Sixteen more 
courses were laid, when the work was again 
closed for want of funds, in 1835; about $20,000 
more having been expended. Depression in all 
the interests of trade and business, a derangement 
in the financial affairs of the country, and a gen- 
eral opinion that the large sums of money already 
collected had not been judiciously or economically 
expended, will account for the delay in the com- 
pletion of the work. Probably, however, the 
durability of the structure was rather advanced 
than injured by the pause of a few years. Sug- 
gestions were occasionally ofiered that the work 
might be brought to a point at its then existing 
elevation, but it was thought better to wait in hope, 
under the conviction that it would one day be 
completed according to the original plan. 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 167 

The happy suggestion, which was offered for 
the sake of meeting the pecuniary want, and 
which, as soon as it was uttered, everybody knew 
would be triumphantly realized, came from the 
weaker sex, who had no hand, though they had 
much heart, in the fighting which had immortal- 
ized the summit. It was proposed that a public 
Fair should be held in the city of Boston, and 
that every female in the United States of America, 
who desired the honor, should work with her own 
hands, and contribute with her own means, to 
furnish the Fair, the other sex being, of course, 
allowed to contribute what they pleased, and 
being expected to purchase with liberality. The 
plan was most successful. A brilliant and daz- 
zling display, as well as an exhibition of the re- 
sults of devoted industry and cunning ingenuity, 
of which we have, at least, as much reason to feel 
proud, as of the battle, attested that the call was 
not made in vain. The Fair was held in Boston 
in September, 1840, and its proceeds, with a few 
munificent private donations, which should be 
considered as depending upon it, put within the 
hands of the Committee of the Bunker Hill Asso- 
ciation, a sum sufficient to complete the great 
object. Mr. Savage, by a contract with the 
Building Committee, was engaged, in the autumn 
of 1840, to complete the work for $43,800. He 
resumed his labor by. laying the first stone on May 
2, 1841, and finished it with entire success, by 



168 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

depositing the apex on July 23, 1842. The last 
stone was raised at six o'clock in the morning of 
that day, with the discharge of cannon; Mr. 
Edward Games, Jr., of Charlestown, accompany- 
ing it in its ascent, and waving the American 
flag during the process. 

The section of the Monument which accompa- 
nies this description, will convey an idea of the 
mode of its construction. The foundation, lying 
twelve feet below the base of the structure, is 
composed of six courses of fair split stones. The 
lower tier rests upon a bed of clay and gravel 
which composes the soil of the hill ; great pains 
having been used in loosening the earth, and in 
•puddling and ramming the stones. The founda- 
tion is laid in lime mortar; the other parts of the 
structure with lime mortar mixed with cinders and 
iron filings, and with Springfield hydraulic ce- 
men-t. Below the base the four faces of the foun- 
dation project into a square of fifty feet, leaving 
open angles at the corners, so that these projec- 
tions act as buttresses. There are ninety courses 
of stone in the whole structure, eighty-four of 
them being above the ground, and six of them 
below. The base is thirty feet square ; in a rise 
of two hundred and eight feet, the point where 
the formation of the apex begins, there is a dimi- 
nution of fourteen feet, seven and a half inches. 
The net rise of the stone from the base to the 
apex, is two hundred and nineteen feet and ten 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 16^ 

inches, the seams of mortar making the whole 
elevation two hundred and twenty-one feet. 

Perpendicular dowels, called Lewis's Clamps^ 
were used to bind the first four courses above the 
base. This was done chiefly as an experiment, 
but being found to be useless and expensive, the 
method was abandoned. The several stones 
which compose each course, are clamped together 
by flat bars of iron, fourteen inches long, the ends 
being turned at right angles and sunk in the 
granite five-eighths of an inch. 

There are four faces of dressed stone in the 
structure, besides the steps which wind around the 
cone within, viz., the exterior and the interior 
sides of the monument, and the exterior and the 
interior of the cone within it. Twelve stones 
compose the exterior, and six large circling stones 
the interior of each course of the shaft ; to each 
course of the shaft, there are two courses of the 
cone, each being composed of six stones, and four 
steps answer to each course of the exterior of the 
shaft. Each of the first seventy-eight courses of 
the exterior of the shaft is two feet eight inches 
in height ; of the next five courses, those compos- 
ing the point, the height of each is one foot eight 
inches ; the cap or apex is a single stone of three 
feet six inches in height. 

The exterior diameter of the cone at the base, 
is ten feet, the interior diameter, seven feet ; at 
tbp toD of the cone the exterior diameter is six 
15 



170 BUNKER HILL MONTTMBNI'. 

feet three inches, the interior diameter, four feet 
two inches. The cone is composed of one hun- 
dred and forty-seven courses of stone, each course 
being one foot four inches in height. 

The elliptical chamber at the top is seventeen 
feet in height and eleven feet in diameter, with 
four windows, each two feet eight inches in 
height, and two feet two inches in breadth. 
, There are numerous apertures in the cone, and 
eight in the shaft, besides the door and the win- 
dows. The windows are closed with iron shut" 
ters. At the door- way, the walls of the shaft are 
six feet in thickness. There are two hundred 
and ninety-four steps in the ascent. 

In fulfilling his third and final contract, Mr, 
Savage removed the gearing which had previously 
been used, and substituted a steam engine of six 
horse power, and an improved and ingenious 
boom derrick of his o^vn invention. Through two 
apertures in the cone he passed a strong beam, in 
which the foot of the derrick was inserted, turn- 
ing on a pivot. This was raised with the comple- 
tion of each four courses of the exterior. A 
projecting arm attached to the boom extended far 
enough to clear the base of the monument, and 
was slightly inclined downwards. The ropes 
passed through shives at the top of the boom and 
the extremity of the lever, and when the stone 
was poised at its elevation, it was drawn in by 
means of a wheel carriage on the lever, which 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 171 

was turned upon the pivot to either side, and the 
load was deposited. The steam engine was di- 
rectly in the rear of the monument, and the ropes 
passed down through the cone, and out at the 
door-way. A hell wire, passing up hy the ropes, 
communicated instantaneously with the engine, 
and directed its motions. A platform staging, 
bound around the monument hy cogs adapted to 
its gradual diminution, and raised with each two 
courses of the exterior, served as a standing place 
for the masons who pointed the work outside. 

This apparatus served till it was necessary to 
cover over the chamber at the top, when, of 
course, the boom derrick and cone could be used 
no longer. The last work of the derrick was to 
draw up a stout oaken beam, which was passed 
through two of the windows, and two masts, which 
being rigged over the projections of the beam and 
lopped over the side of the monument, the re- 
maining stones were slowly, but safely raised, 
and then, the masts being righted perpendicularly, 
ihey were deposited in their places. The steady 
industry of the engine, and the cautious oversight 
of Mr. Savage, made these last operations exceed- 
ingly and intensely interesting. It was at first 
proposed, that the raising and depositing of the 
last stone should be attended with parade, for- 
mality, and a public celebration. But this was 
wisely discountenanced by Mr. Savage, who knew 
that the caution and care and presence of mind 



/2 BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

which were requisite, would be best secured by 
quiet, and a degree of privacy. Accordingly, the 
last stone was raised, as we have said, at six 
o'clock, on the morning of the 23d of July, 1842, 
in presence of the officers of the Bunker Hill 
Monument Association, and a few other spectators. 

On the 17th of the previous June, before the 
chamber at the top had been covered over, a can- 
non which had been raised on the preceding 
evening, sent forth its volleys in a national salute. 

Those who enjoyed the view from the unclosed 
chamber, or from the top of the structure before 
the last stone was laid, seemed to feel a disappoint- 
ment when the view was contracted into the range 
of vision as confined by the narrow windows. 
But this feeling will not affect those who look for 
the first time through the windows over a scene 
which unites the sublime and the beautiful, which 
embraces ocean, islands, mountains, woods and 
rivers, cities and villages, churches and school- 
houses, palaces and happy cottage homes of con- 
tented industry, free from the sceptre of an earthly 
monarch, but, therefore, all the more bound in 
allegiance of gratitude and reverence to the King 
of kings. 



Library of Congress 
Branch Bindery, 1903 



